Open-space Learning in
Real World Contexts
Evaluation and Impact Assessment Report submitted to the
Higher Education Academy, July 2011
Professor Jonothan Neelands, National Teaching Fellow 2007,
Principal Investigator
Funded by the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Table of Contents
2. Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ 3
3. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 4
4. Background .................................................................................................................................... 9
5. Aims and Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 21
6. Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 23
7. Implementation / 8.Outputs and findings ................................................................................... 35
9. Outcomes/10. Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 67
11. Implications/ 12. Recommendations ......................................................................................... 73
13. References ................................................................................................................................. 78
14. Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 80
2
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
2. Acknowledgements
The OSL project group would like to acknowledge the Higher Education Academy’s
National Teaching Fellowship Scheme for funding this project.
This evaluation report is a work of collaboration. I have synthesized the responses and
testimonials of student participants, student researchers, module conveners and OSL
practitioners. It would have been an impossible task without the coherent reflections of
Nicholas Barker Annouchka Bayley, Susan Brock, Nicola Farrer, Jonathan Heron, Sean
Hudson, Eileen John, Rachel King, Julie-Ann Lough, Nicholas Monk, Jonothan Neelands,
Louisa Noffke, Robert O’Toole, Grier Palmer, Ceara Rice, Isolda Romero, Peter Sadler,
Adam Slavny, and Jamie Williams. Emma King from Warwick University’s Learning and
Development Centre has also audited this report. Her suggestions have been gratefully
received.
Barry Sheils
3
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
3. Executive Summary
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts was granted a budget of £193,
502 by the Higher Education Academy under its National Teaching
Fellowship Scheme for the period August 2009- July 2011. This evaluation
report set out to review the implementation and impact of Open-space
Learning practices across the University of Warwick over this time.
Context
Open-space Learning (OSL) is an emergent paradigm of teaching and learning based at
the University of Warwick which draws on a variety of valued educational theories and
practices. It emphasizes an embodied, performative mode of learning that challenges the
primacy of the lecture and seminar model in Higher Education.
The OSL methodology emerged from the work done through the CAPITAL Centre, a
Centre for Excellence and Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Warwick. CAPITAL, funded by
HEFCE from 2005-2010, formed a strategic partnership with the Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC) and founded its teaching philosophy on practice-based workshops. In
2010 Warwick University founded the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning
(IATL) in order to further its commitment to achieving excellence in teaching and
learning. The OSL project has played a significant role in defining the aims of this institute.
IATL now offers a structural commitment to creativity and interdisciplinarity in teaching
and learning at Warwick and provides an ideal forum for sustaining OSL practices within
the University.
The OSL project has been undertaken at a time when the Higher Education sector is
experiencing unprecedented financial restructuring, presenting new challenges for HE
teaching. Formative reports such as Ramsden (2008) ‘The Future of Higher Education:
Teaching and the Student Experience’ and Browne (2010) ‘Securing a Sustainable Future
for Higher Education: an Independent Review of Higher Education’ have identified ‘the
student experience’, ‘interdisciplinarity’ and ‘the skills gap between university and the
workplace’ as key issues. Members of the OSL project team have succeeded in addressing
these issues in the course of their practice.
Data and Evaluation
We defined six major project strands for evaluation purposes: OSL case studies working in
collaboration with 6 academic departments (Business, Chemistry, Maths, Philosophy,
Theatre Studies and Psychiatry); training events for OSL practitioners; the development of
4
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
the Student Ensemble; longitudinal data from Warwick alumni who have experienced
OSL; the OSL e-resource, including a handbook for OSL technology, and the project’s
dissemination strategy.
Approximately 500 students completed feedback questionnaires for OSL events. We
conducted over 30 in-depth interviews and focus groups with students, academic staff,
and OSL practitioners and documented individual sessions. Student researchers, attached
to each OSL case study, contributed to this process of data collection and further
enriched the qualitative assessment of OSL by providing independent reports.
Quality of Evaluation Data
While the level of student feedback was consistently good the overall usefulness of
completed questionnaires was limited. We found that asking students to judge which was
the most effective way to learn, (lecture, seminar, OSL workshop etc.) yielded consistent
but inconclusive results. The quantitative data did suggest however, a positive student
response to the OSL experience and a high level of recognition among students that OSL
sessions are academically efficacious. It was also valuable to note that students across
the academic disciplines responded equally well to OSL: there was no discernable
difference between the responses from students in Chemistry and those from students in
Philosophy, for instance.
Student testimonials gathered from interviews, focus groups, and the work of student
researchers recorded two major points: OSL workshops helped teach even difficult
academic content (complex texts in Philosophy; abstract concepts in Mathematics) in a
new and engaging way; and the embodied practice of OSL helped to develop transferable
skills which are useful for future employment (‘Real World Chemistry’ and Critical Issues
in Law and Management).
The longitudinal data collected from Warwick alumni who have experienced OSL suggests
that OSL workshops are more memorable than lectures: not only on the level of
experience but also of academic content. Alumni attest to the value of OSL for developing
professional communication skills, creativity and self-confidence.
Embedding OSL
We recorded the methods of interdisciplinary collaboration between academic partners
and OSL practitioners through the case studies. It was evident that the established
projects in Business, Chemistry and Philosophy were constantly evolving, looking for fresh
ways to integrate and refine OSL practices. New projects in Mathematics and Psychiatry
5
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
provided workable models for the future adoption of OSL by using an interdisciplinary
event (such as ‘How does a Theorem Act?’) to inaugurate a collaborative relationship
with a new academic partner.
Each academic partner and project leader has put on record their commitment to the
further integration of OSL methods. The prospective question concerned the
sustainability of this future practice once the HEA funding was no longer available.
Major Outputs
This project’s aim to establish OSL as a recognizable idiom across the HE sector was
significantly met through the publication by Bloomsbury Press in March 2011 of Openspace Learning: A Study in Transdisciplinary Pedagogy. This is a co-authored book which
contains, alongside case studies and reflections, a unifying argument for OSL. Further to
this, the project has produced a programme of conferences and symposia and two
annotated bibliographies which situate OSL theory and practice within a broad academic
context and establish a canon of relevant material for future researchers and
practitioners. The journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice published an article
reporting on the OSL collaboration with Chemistry. This model of co-authorship with
input from subject specialists and OSL practitioners is to be sustained with further plans
for academic articles on the Philosophy and ‘Representing the Other’ case studies.
The OSL project has also developed a creative legacy. Passing On is an original dramatic
work devised from an ethnodrama project within the Medical school. Discords is an
innovative adaptation of Beckett and Shakespeare devised and performed by the Student
Ensemble.
Major Outcomes
OSL is practiced in 12 departments across all faculties of the University: Chemistry,
Cultural Policy Studies, Education, English and Comparative Literary Studies, Law,
Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Psychiatry, Sociology, Theatre Studies and
Warwick Business School.
In the two years of the OSL project approximately 1000 students have
experienced OSL workshops. Including the work of CAPITAL over 3000 students
have experienced OSL style workshops at Warwick in the last 5 years.
According to student questionnaires 90% of those who have experienced OSL
would recommend it to other students. Over 60% of those surveyed allow that it
provides a distinctive way of understanding their academic subject.
OSL has shown itself to be academically robust across academic disciplines.
6
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
OSL has promoted student engagement at all levels of research and facilitation.
OSL is firmly embedded within Warwick’s teaching strategy through the Institute
of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL).
The OSL project has developed lasting projects in the field of Professional
development with Student Careers and Skills and the Learning and Development
Centre.
OSL has established the paradigm along with Student Careers and Skills for a
funded intervention in STEM subjects.
The OSL project has led to the foundation of a new Chair of Creative Education
and a multi project initiative called Working Capital in Warwick Business School as
well as the creation of a joint venture between the Business School and the Royal
Shakespeare Company called the Centre for Teaching Shakespeare.
The OSL project has made an important contribution to the University’s
consideration of future learning and teaching space developments and to its elearning strategy.
OSL has demonstrated that it is applicable to all levels of study.
The OSL project has created an extensive on-line digital resource with OSL
conventions, case-studies, learning tools, and lesson plans to aid future
practitioners. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/.
Further Challenges
In order to sustain and develop OSL practices beyond the period of this project there are
certain recognized challenges which have still to be met. The legacy of OSL within IATL
(there are now two OSL practitioners convening IATL projects) must be realized through
new models of sustainable OSL practice.
It has been one of the major lessons of this project that in order to embed an innovative
HE pedagogy successfully across academic disciplines there has to be a distinctive and
recognised training route to attract new practitioners. Although this project has
succeeded in applying the OSL methodology in a fully integrated interdisciplinary fashion,
it has relied on a relatively small number of OSL practitioners for its duration. If OSL
practices are to continue evolving from within different academic departments at
Warwick and beyond, as an informed alternative to the lecture or seminar format, then
they must be viewed as a central matter of professional development. The course on
Workshop facilitation incorporated by the Learning and Development Centre’s
7
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice (PCAPP) is the first step in
this process.
Assessment methodologies across departments increasingly contain the acknowledgment
that the written exam format is too narrow to reflect the extent and diversity of the
individual student’s thought processes. Yet teaching practices have not always caught up
with this formal recognition that student outputs could and should be creative and
diverse. OSL has provided a model for integrating innovative teaching practice and
assessment together. The challenge is to have this model adopted more widely.
The value of OSL
In addition to the outcomes achieved within the timeframe of the project, the project
leaders and OSL practitioners have identified further productive legacies of OSL which will
continue to be promoted.
The advent of the internet and electronic dissemination means that traditional forms of
intellectual authority will increasingly be challenged. The picture of HE learning in which a
single academic lectures to a large group of students is becoming less and less sustainable
when students can easily download a podcast or access any number of lectures on the
same topic over the internet. The OSL project proposes one form of pedagogic evolution
where the embodied and interactive experience of learning is complemented rather than
usurped by the internet.
The OSL project has inaugurated different models of interdisciplinary collaboration. A
healthy diversity in OSL practice would see projects developed collaboratively, through
partnerships between academic departments and the Student Ensemble or IATL, and
independently where OSL practice has been imported into departmental teaching
practices. A new interdisciplinary module administered by Warwick Business School,
‘Forms of Identity’ shows the way in this respect. This will be an accredited course
available to students from any academic discipline across the university. This exceeds the
familiar joint-honours model of interdisciplinarity where OSL is combined with a single
academic discipline (Chemistry, Philosophy) and proposes a genuinely trans-disciplinary
practice with OSL at its heart.
The financial restructuring of HE has enshrined the idea of the competitive university (See
Browne, 1). The question of how a university differentiates itself from its competitors will
become more pressing in respect of teaching as well as research. OSL is a mark of
distinction for Warwick University and, given an accredited training programme for OSL
practitioners, a mark of distinction for Warwick-trained educators.
8
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
4. Background
4.1 Open-space Learning (OSL) in Real World Contexts
4.1.1 Defining OSL
Open Space Learning (OSL) is an emergent paradigm of teaching and learning based at
the University of Warwick which draws on a variety of valued educational theories and
practices (see Fig.1). It emphasizes an embodied, performative mode of learning that
challenges the primacy of the lecture and seminar model in Higher Education. Its specific
development at Warwick derived from collaborations between theatre practitioners and
university educators (see 4.3.1) and a subsequent commitment to extend the creative
and collaborative ethos of this work across the whole university.
At a practical level OSL is an example of what might be recognised as the
‘workshop model’ of teaching and learning. The workshop is the basic unit in
pedagogic interaction between facilitator and participant in OSL. The open
space of the workshop allows the participants to become the producers of
knowledge by creating an environment that prevents the reformation of the
rigidly hierarchical arrangements of lecture theatre and seminar room. (The
OSL Project Group).
The embodied nature of OSL begins, in very practical ways, to move us
beyond the dilemmas and contradictions of idealism and empiricism as mind
and body, unified, promote an infinitely more memorable and integrated
learning experience for students and tutors. Pedagogical theory and practice
begin, perhaps, to catch up with recent thinking in psychology and
neuroscience that increasingly foreground the holistic nature of body and
brain. (The OSL Project Group).
OSL remains broadly defined for two main reasons: to retain its attraction across all
academic departments; and to retain the scope to evolve its methods collaboration-bycollaboration.
4.1.2 The theory and practice of OSL
There are diverse pedagogic, as well as neuro-scientific and philosophical, justifications
for promoting the OSL approach in Higher Education. These have been consulted and
9
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
acknowledged over the course of the project, not least in publications and bibliographies
(see 7/8.6.4 and Fg.1 below).
Flexible and less hierarchical uses of space to encourage activity-based, social,
collaborative and research-led teaching and learning (Savin-Baden 2008, Kolb
1984, Daniels 2001 Jackson et al. 2006)
An epistemological stance which treats disciplinary knowledge as provisional,
problematic and ‘unfinished’ and which encourages students, teachers and
support staff to question the ‘known’ and to explore the ‘unknown’. (Freire &Shor
1987, Wells 2008, Sternberg &Lubart 1999)
Real-world based experiential learning grounded in discovery, enquiry and action
with a stress on meta-cognition and the development of social intelligence (Dewey
1995, Bruner 1986, Argyris 1992, Argyris & Shon 1974)
Learning which is cognitive but also affective, physical, interpersonal (Gardner
1985, Seltzer &Bentley 1999)
Learning environments and pedagogies which stress multidisciplinary
collaborations and multiple learning styles (Csíkszentmihályi 1999, Gardner 1985)
Fig. 1. The key theoretical features of the OSL model
This major emphasis of this evaluative report is upon the practice of OSL as documented
in the case studies. According to the OSL model, practice is both research and
experimentation and not simply the expression of an established theory. Consequently, in
the course of this evaluation we shall not cite theory to judge the success of practice
rather we shall observe how theory is continually informed by practice.
10
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
4.1.3 ‘Real World Contexts’
The rubric ‘Real World Contexts’ addresses the contemporary issue of how university
teaching prepares students for the world outside the university. OSL claims to provide a
model for intervention here, on several registers.
OSL addresses the ‘skills gap’ between university and the workplace identified in
the Browne Review (See 11/12.3)
OSL encourages students to be active and responsible producers of knowledge,
rather than passive recipients
OSL pursues a model of collaborative design thinking used in creative industries
but often inhibited by the hierarchical structure of university teaching
OSL develops ‘soft skills’ such as responsibility, sociability, self-esteem and selfmanagement
Through its aspects of performance and embodiment, OSL enhances students’
presentation and interview skills
OSL works with other university departments such as Student Careers and Skills
(SCS) to engage students in simulated ‘real-world’ activities: networking;
presenting academic material to commercial interests etc.
By accounting for multiple intelligences beyond the linguistic and logical,
especially the visual and the kinaesthetic, OSL prepares students for different
work environments
OSL’s commitment to multidisciplinary work enables students to be flexible in
their approach beyond the conventional methods of a single discipline (methods
which often have no correlation in ‘the real world’)
Through experience of OSL students recognize that learning involves making
mistakes and learning from failure. From this process they gain the confidence to
act productively on the world
The collaborative and non-hierarchical ethos of OSL encourages students to be
active citizens
11
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
4.1.4 OSL Values
One of the major challenges that OSL faces as a multidisciplinary methodology is to be
academically and vocationally relevant to each separate discipline. But alongside this
challenge sits the ambition to creatively engage students from every faculty in the
University and provide for them the kind of active, creative experience often reserved for
those students studying specific Arts subjects. At the centre of this multidisciplinary
approach then, is the idea of the University as a coherent learning community.
Professor Ramsden’s 2008 report for the UK government on ‘Teaching and
Student Experience’
(http://www.dius.gov.uk/policy/teaching_and_student_experience.html) states as one of
its major conclusions: ‘Student involvement in quality processes should start from the
idea of building learning communities. Practically speaking, this involves shaping student
expectations of their role as responsible partners who are able to take ownership of
quality enhancement with staff and engage with them in dialogue about improving
assessment, curriculum and teaching.’ OSL’s active approach to knowledge creation,
student-staff collaboration, and being ‘live’ together in the same open space aims to
promote exactly this sense of partnership and collective responsibility.
4.2 People
4.2.1 National Teaching Fellows
Professor David Morley is a British poet, critic, anthologist, editor and scientist of partly
Romani extraction. He has published eighteen books, including nine collections of poetry.
His work has been translated into several languages including Arabic. His forthcoming
collection from Carcanet will be titled Hedgehurst.
*At the end of Year 1 Professor Morley withdrew from the project for personal reasons
Professor Jonothan Neelands is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF) and Principal
Investigator of the OSL project. He is Chair of Drama and Theatre Education in the
12
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Institute of Education and Chair of Creative Education in the Warwick Business School. He
is closely involved in the RSC's Stand Up for Shakespeare campaign to improve the quality
of Shakespeare teaching and learning and is the Lead Academic for the new RSC/Warwick
Centre for Teaching Shakespeare (CTS).
Mr Robert O’Toole is a National Teaching Fellow, Arts Faculty e-learning advisor and
teacher of International Design and Communication Management. He is currently doing
research into ‘the application of design methodologies to enhance student and teacher
use of user-configurable and edgeless learning spaces’. Mr O’Toole was
awarded Warwick's 2007/08 Award for Teaching Excellence.
4.2.2 Other OSL Staff
Mr Adam Cartwright, Technology Advisor
Ms Amy Clarke, Office Manager
Mr Jonathan Heron, Research Associate/Practitioner (Mr Heron was awarded Warwick's
2009/10 Butterworth Award for Teaching Excellence.)
Dr Nicholas Monk, Research Fellow (Dr Monk was awarded Warwick's 2008/9
Butterworth Award for Teaching Excellence.)
Dr Barry Sheils, Research Fellow
4.2.3 Student Researchers/Lead Learners
Mr David J. Hall, Psychiatry
Mr Sean Hudson, Philosophy and Literature
Ms Rachel King, School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
Mr Luke Robert Mason, School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
13
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Ms Louisa Noffke, Chemistry
Ms Ceara Rice, Philsophy and Literature
Ms Isolda Romero, Chemistry
Mr Adam Slavny, (Postgraduate Coordinator), Law
Mr Jamie Williams, Philosophy and Literature
4.3 The University of Warwick
4.3.1 The Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning (CAPITAL) Centre
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/capital
The principal focus of the research at the CAPITAL Centre has been what we
have begun to theorise as Open-space Learning (OSL). OSL grew principally
out of our teaching of Shakespeare and our excitement concerning our
discovery that the techniques of the theatrical rehearsal room were
applicable across the disciplines. (OSL Project Group)
The Open Space Learning (OSL) in Real World Contexts project emerged from the work
done through the CAPITAL centre, a Centre for Excellence and Teaching and Learning
(CETL) at Warwick. CAPITAL, funded by HEFCE 2005-2010, formed a strategic
partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and founded its teaching
philosophy on practice-based workshops. Although initially aimed at English and Theatre
students, this workshop methodology developed successfully right across the University.
Approximately 2000 Students from Law, Cultural Policy Studies, Philosophy, Chemistry,
Psychology, History, The Medical School, The Warwick Business School, The Institute of
14
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Education, and Biology undertook practical teaching and learning projects in
collaboration with CAPITAL.1
CAPITAL established the groundwork for OSL in four major ways.
It placed creativity, space and kinaesthetic Learning at the heart of its teaching
ethos
It established a precedent for multidisciplinary collaborations in teaching and
learning using the workshop and ‘rehearsal practice’ model
It established an effective model of cross-faculty research and dissemination
through, for example, the Space, Performance and Pedagogy Group
It established an important physical infrastructure, including a black box studio
space, a rehearsal room and a Writers’ room. These are open and flexible teaching
and learning spaces which offer viable alternatives to the traditional lecture
theatre or seminar room (see 4.4.1)
In the context of CAPITAL, the OSL project is ‘a platform for next practice’ intended to
extend cross-disciplinary collaboration along the lines initiated by CAPITAL. This means:
Providing further evidence for the efficacy of OSL in a Higher Education context
Embedding new models for teaching creatively with the OSL approach which can
be transferred across academic disciplines
Reflecting upon issues of OSL delivery, assessment and application.
Creating and disseminating resources for teaching with OSL
Raising student awareness of the teaching values which inform the OSL approach
4.3.2 The Reinvention Centre
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/rsw/undergrad/cetl
1
See CETL Final Self-Evaluation: The CAPITAL Centre. Esp. Sections: 2.2; 3.1; 7
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/capital
15
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The Reinvention Centre was another Warwick CETL. Based in the Sociology Department
at Warwick and the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University, it
aimed to integrate research based learning into the undergraduate curriculum and
redesign spaces in which students learn. Its legacy to the OSL project was twofold:
A commitment to student engagement, especially encouraging undergraduate
students to work in a research capacity. The involvement of ‘lead learners’ within
each OSL case study testifies to this commitment (see 6.2.1 and 7/8.1)
Another open and flexible learning space: The Reinvention Centre at Westwood
(see 4.4.1)
4.3.3 The Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL)
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl
IATL emerged in 2010 out of Warwick’s two CETLs and the University’s commitment to
achieving excellence in teaching and learning as well as in research. OSL is centrally
placed within IATL’s strategic promise:
supporting colleagues to explore and apply innovative teaching practices and
methodologies, including Open-space Learning, generating new ideas within
strategic themes to help shape teaching and learning across the University
and disseminate, embed and raise the profile of new approaches and
successful innovations. (IATL Project Group)
The Open-space Learning Project predates IATL and has played a significant role in
constituting its aims. One major benefit of this is that IATL offers a structural
commitment to creativity and multidisciplinarity in teaching and learning at Warwick and
16
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
provides an ideal forum for sustaining OSL practices within the university.
Fig.2. The institutional support for OSL
4.4 OSL Spaces
The provision of open and flexible spaces has been crucial to OSL’s strategy of offering an
alternative learning experience to the lecture theatre or seminar room.
4.4.1 Major OSL venues
There have been three major OSL venues:
The CAPITAL Rehearsal Room is primarily a teaching space. A double-height white
room with semi-sprung floor, the room has been designed in consultation with
professional practitioners to suit practical classes, rehearsals, readings and
workshops. The room contains approximately 25 chairs, 6 cubes and 2 tables and
white boards along one wall.
17
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The CAPITAL Studio is used to host workshops and classes and is also used for
performances, masterclasses, training events and by visiting theatre practitioners.
The room is a black box studio with semi-sprung harlequin floor. An overhead
wired grid provides access to the lighting bars from a technical room on the first
floor. There is also the facility to build a section of raked seating in the room. The
room contains approximately 25 chairs, 6 cubes and 2 tables, a moveable white
board and a projection screen.
The Reinvention Centre provides 120m2 of floor space with flexible, moveable
furniture. This makes it easy for users themselves to transform the shape and
purpose of the room, and the open design and layout facilitates active learning
and interaction between students and teachers.
More details of these spaces are available at the following link:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/spaces/
4.4.2 Using other spaces
The OSL project has also sought to avail of other less ‘specialist’ spaces around the
University, including new library spaces,
(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/teachinggrid), university boardrooms, and
art galleries.
4.4.3 The question of ‘space’
It is a premise of the OSL methodology that space is an important factor in the quality of
a teaching and learning event; this should not be taken to mean however, that using a
state of the art open space venue is sufficient for an OSL event to take place, or that OSL
events cannot take place in more traditional ‘closed’ spaces. Space is defined
pedagogically by how students place themselves within it, and in this sense should be
considered philosophically as well as physically (see for example H. Bhabha’s theory of
‘Third Space’). Consequently, the open and flexible venues listed above, while they
18
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
facilitate the workshop model of teaching, and provide excellent models for the
aspirations of OSL in the future, do not constitute the prerequisite for OSL taking place.
This raises some seminal issues which will be considered later in this report:
The perceived limit to the availability of spaces in which OSL can take place
The danger of defining an OSL space in opposition to a traditional learning
space
The value of consultation with other university bodies (in this case Capital
Planning and Accommodation Review Group (CPARG)) on both the use of
extant spaces and the design of future spaces within the University
4.5. OSL Technology
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/resources/
A media and technology suite introduced and evaluated by National Teaching Fellow
Robert O’Toole, and assembled with NTF funding, has contributed to the delivery of the
OSL project.
New technologies have played a significant role in the OSL project:
Exploring emergent technologies, e.g. augmented reality (Theatre Studies
enactive project).
Documenting OSL sessions, aiding subsequent reflection and providing
material for academic assessment
Working as resources within OSL sessions as digital archives, media
displays, and devices for creative reflection and play. (See 7/8.6.6 and
11/12.1)
19
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
4.5.1 Sample resources
4 iMacs in the Media Suite - these powerful Apple computers are easy to use, and allow
anyone to create a professional looking movie with only a minimum of training (10
minutes).
Everything you need to create a great video or audio production, including High
Definition video cameras, MP3 recorders and microphones
5 MacBooks and 4 iPod Touch mobile learning devices (with wifi and video cameras). For
use in workshops using the OSL approach
4.6. Need for the OSL project
These general objectives were stated and explained in the original bid and will be further
delineated over the course of this report. This is a brief summary:
A platform for next practice: to build on the work done by Warwick’s two CETLs
Evidence: to develop a practical research methodology to demonstrate the
validity of claims for OSL
Assessment: develop a workable assessment methodology for OSL
Professional Training: establish a coherent programme of support and
professional development in OSL
Sustainability: embed OSL within departments and other university centres in
order to ensure it is supported in a sustainable way
20
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
5. Aims and Objectives
The following project aims are from the original bid. Where possible we have indexed
each of these aims to an output and further evaluative discussion later in this report.
Where original project aims have been amended we have briefly accounted for it and
referred the reader to those sections which explain the change in more detail.
1. Case studies and a manual of guidance, supporting OSL in other HE institutions,
available electronically See 7/8.1 and 7/8.5
2. A formal accredited training route for theatre practitioners, academic and other
staff in the application of OSL See 7/8.2 and 11/12.2
3. Four discipline-specific and generic open seminars for Warwick academic and
support staff See 7/8.6.2
3. An embedded Student Ensemble to promote and develop creative methods of
OSL See 7/8.3
5. Direct involvement of students in the research project, using resources such as
Reinvention: a Journal of Undergraduate Research to disseminate their work, and
Warwick’s Undergraduate Research Support Scheme to develop professionalism
and creativity See 6.2.1, 7/8.1 and 9/10.6
6. An online 'hand-book' for designing, using and supporting technology for
teachers, students, creative professionals, technologists and others involved in
OSL, illustrated with case studies, pedagogical design patterns and reviews of
hardware and software trends in the OSL context See 7/8.5
7. A systematic and up to date review of the uses and impact of OSL to provide an
evidence base for the HE sector on sustainable integration of enactive learning
and the development of ethnodrama as an effective methodology See 7/8.1
21
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
8. The first cohort of trained practitioners with appropriate OSL expertise and
experience and equipped to support academics, will be available to the HE sector
graduating with the PG Cert in Workshop Leadership See 11/12.2
9. Online guide to the assessment of OSL across disciplines. See 11/12.3
10. Prototype multi-platform and mobile virtual research and learning
environment (VRLE) tools that interface between students embedded in OSL
activities and the wider contexts provided by VLEs. See 7/8.6.7
11. Dissemination:
An international conference in July 2011 to share and disseminate best
practice, to be promoted through the University’s CETLs and other networks
e.g. HEA Subject Centres and ANTF. See 7/8.6.3
Research papers by academic partners for a range of professional journals and
disciplines. See 7/8.6.4
Online materials disseminated through the University’s digital press, i-Tunes U
and other appropriate channels. See 7/8.6.6
Presentations at two UK and two international conferences. See 7/8.6.3
A final impact assessment study. See 9/10
22
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
6. Methodology
6.1 Summary
This section will describe the practice-based approach of the OSL project; and the
methods through which it aimed to identify and deliver a sustainable strategy to raise the
standards of student achievement within Warwick University and beyond into the world
of work.
In order to meet the challenges of practicing and assessing a novel pedagogy,
especially one which emphasises positive experiential learning over and above more
familiar models of knowledge transfer, and which is currently developed for its broad
range of academic and vocational applications, we have utilized a diverse range of
documentation and evaluation strategies. Overall there are 6 major strands to this
project’s methodology.
1. OSL Case Studies
-
Running OSL workshop in collaboration with 6 different academic
departments
-
Engaging the perspective of student researchers (‘lead learners’)
-
Gathering quantitative and qualitative student feedback from all enactive
projects
-
Interviewing both OSL practitioners and stakeholders from different
university departments within each case study
2. Training OSL practitioners and consulting on OSL techniques
3. Developing the Student Ensemble
4. Gathering longitudinal data from Warwick alumni who experienced OSL
5. Developing an e-resource for OSL, including a handbook for OSL technology
6. A strategy for dissemination: ethnodrama; podcasts; publications;
conferences; open seminars
Fig.3 Project Strands
23
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
It is clear then that the principles of research here are practice-based and pluralistic. By
inviting response from OSL practitioners, stakeholders (university staff from different
departments who have decided to avail of OSL techniques), students, and student
researchers we have ensured there is plentiful opportunity for divergent points of view to
emerge. This conforms to the principles of “action research” (Whitehead and McNiff,
2006) whereby conflicting observations are encouraged as part of the process of
knowledge creation. Instead of a single ethnographic perspective, this report will seek to
combine several perspectives in the course of its evaluation.
6.2 Project strands
We shall now offer a brief rationale for each project strand; including consideration of
why we preferred this methodology to possible alternatives.
6.2.1 OSL Case Studies
Grants of up to £1000 are available to support OSL-based learning projects
which may use external creative partners, resident or embedded
practitioners, and/or the CAPITAL student ensemble. Each project should
have at least one student attached as a Research Assistant (lead learners) to
assist in documentation and evaluation who will be supported by a modest
bursary. These projects are the core activity of OSL and will form the basis for
case studies demonstrating the relationship between performance-based
learning and student achievement and confidence in their professional
development. Projects must be completed before 1 July 2011. (OSL Website)
6 OSL case studies were established with a variety of academic partners within the
University: These will be narrated in more detail in the next section: Chemistry,
Philosophy, Warwick Business School (WBS), ‘Representing the Other’ Verbatim Theatre,2
2
‘Representing the Other’ was a fully interdisciplinary module attended by students from a range of
disciplines working at different levels of academic study
24
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Mathematics and Psychiatry. 3 An interdisciplinary approach was taken so we could fully
engage the NTFs’ expertise in OSL, produce a collaborative ethos across the University
and avoid the potential pitfall of allowing open spaces to be used to repeat conventional
discipline-specific lessons.
Case study Methods:
a) Gathering student feedback from enactive workshops.
Generic Questionnaires (Appendix 1) were handed out to students after each OSL
workshop. They ask students to agree or disagree with a series of propositions on a scale
of 1 to 5, before inviting more substantial responses on a series of points relevant to the
workshop. These are necessarily brief questionnaires, but they provide the quantitative
basis for an analysis across academic disciplines, and across academic years. They also
provide coverage of the majority of student participants in these workshops.
What use can this quantitative approach have in evaluating a mode of teaching which
has an experiential ethos?
This approach can provide some basic, necessary evidence in support of OSL
By inviting the students to respond to a series of propositions about teaching
these questionnaires remind them that they have responsibility for their own
learning experience and that OSL is an evolving methodology
These questionnaires provide students with an opportunity to record an
interest in OSL
3
Maths and Psychiatry are both newly established OSL collaborations. Unlike Chemistry, Philosophy and
WBS these subject disciplines do not have an established history within the CAPITAL centre. Consequently
these case studies engage more with the challenges of gathering support for novel teaching and learning
initiatives, finding new academic partners and having innovative practices meaningfully adopted within the
university.
25
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The process of gathering feedback for review can help formulate further
research questions
The quantitative data collected provides a basis for further analysis: for
example, a generally positive student response to a session will inevitably
provide the impetus for a comparison with other sessions which have been
reviewed less favourably
b) Engaging the perspective of student researchers (‘lead learners’).
The anecdotal and miscellaneous nature of lead learners’ documentation, including
reports, focus groups, interviews, photographs and observations, will provide a material
context for the qualitative aspects of this study, highlighting the experiential and creative
nature of OSL. Recorded electronically, it will also contribute to the project’s aim of
dissemination.
Why not rely more on expert than on student research?
The aim of student-centred learning is to involve students in a variety of
different roles and to build a learning community
The lead learner role is designed to encourage students to reflect more on the
methods of delivering knowledge and consequently to invest more in these
methods
Some of the lead learners are PhD students and will hopefully become OSL
practitioners in the future
The lead learners are often more effective at gathering useful feedback from
student practitioners. This is the advantage of students speaking to students
This project aims to achieve a balance of perspectives by placing the lead
learners’ perspective into a relation with those of the OSL practitioners, staff
members and student participants
26
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
c) Interviewing both OSL practitioners and stakeholders from different University
departments within each case study.
In-depth Interviews with project leaders, principal stakeholders, lead learners and some
student participants allow for open reflection on the relative success of particular
workshops, and on the general efficacy of OSL. They provide a multi-perspectival frame
for this report’s recommendations and permit reflection upon the learning curve of this
project. This combination of leading and learning is crucial to the collaborative model
which OSL proposes.
Why not commit more exclusively to written reports?
Interviews and focus groups have consistently provided detailed and
evaluative responses to OSL workshops
Interviews and focus groups can be disseminated electronically
Written reports can often become overly formal and they place a
bureaucratic burden on stakeholders within academic departments who may
be discouraged from engaging OSL activities in future as a result
6.2.2 Training OSL practitioners and consulting on OSL techniques
It was an ambition of the project that OSL practitioners would emerge from within
subject disciplines, thus giving OSL style teaching more academic credibility.
Why not use more external theatre practitioners?
Experience has shown that workshops delivered by specialists from a theatre
background excite interest in the methods of OSL across the University but
often fail to sustain it. There are two reasons for this: once the specialist has
withdrawn from the department or the University there is no way to sustain
the OSL work he or she has done; and despite their technical and formal
expertise the theatre specialist often lacks the discipline specific language to
hold the interest of students and academic staff
27
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
By training practitioners within the University, this project aims to embed OSL
practice within academic departments in a sustainable way
The key to the success of OSL is its collaborative ethos: this means
practitioners working alongside academics from different departments to
conceive of innovative OSL programmes which are not short on academic
content
Emerging OSL practitioners should come from every discipline, and not only
Theatre Studies or Education
6.2.3 Developing the Student Ensemble
Experience has shown that external practitioners and companies supplying
training services are expensive and make it difficult to maintain a consistency
of approach and commitment to OSL. An element of the project, therefore, is
the development of an ensemble within the University to offer a range of OSL
projects, to academic departments and other bodies e.g. the Learning and
Development Centre and the Graduate School. Drawing on the experience
and skills of students and others who have benefited from OSL and offering
them professional development opportunities, the ensemble will consist of
Warwick students, staff and alumni, replenished each year with first year
students, under the direction of a researcher/theatre practitioner. The project
thus ensures a sustainable flow of suitably qualified individuals to support the
enactive learning model. (OSL Project team)
Why not use student participants from within the different academic disciplines as
actors?
The Ensemble recruits from across the University
A trained company provides an incentive for motivated Warwick students to
develop acting skills to a high level which they then learn to apply within
pedagogical settings
The Ensemble can provide the impetus or scaffolding for OSL projects either
by performing relevant theatre pieces or by acting a predetermined role to
simulate ‘real world’ situations for OSL participants –for example, the
networking sessions (see 7/8.3, 7/8.6.1)
28
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The ‘acting’ of the Ensemble is formally distinguished from the ‘performance’
of the students within the OSL workshop itself
6.2.4 Gathering longitudinal data from Warwick alumni who experienced OSL
It was deemed important to the aim of demonstrating the value of OSL to students,
especially in terms of professional development, that OSL alumni were surveyed in their
new work places.
Is it not too early in the development of OSL for a meaningful longitudinal study?
Although students who have experienced the OSL methodology at Warwick
have yet to progress far into their post-university careers (we have alumni
who graduated in 2009-10), learning how they remember OSL and how they
view its impact in comparison to other methods of teaching and learning is an
important indicator of OSL’s initial success
It is also valuable to establish a formal process for staying in touch with OSL
alumni so that in future years this research can be consolidated
6.2.5 Developing an e-resource for OSL, including a handbook for OSL technology
What good is an e-resource when the emphasis of OSL is on practical
experimentation?
The OSL e-resource is not simply a record of past OSL activities, it is a guide for
users of OSL: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final
Over the course of the project it hosted a live and democratic forum for
sharing ideas about OSL through the blog:
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/openspacelearning
It documents the use and development of OSL technology
It provides a resource for future researchers into OSL including detailed
feedback from OSL sessions, interviews with student participants and
practitioners, and OSL bibliographies
29
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
6.2.6 A diverse strategy for dissemination: ethnodrama; podcasts; publications;
conferences; symposia
Why not focus more exclusively on peer-review journal publications?
There has been a substantial written output from this project, including a full
length book, Open Space Learning: A Study in Transdisciplinary Pedagogy
http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/view/Openspace_Learning_9781849662314/book-ba-9781849662314.xml
Ethnodrama is an innovative and community focused approach to
disseminating OSL practices within the University. It will also produce an
original piece of dramatic art Passing On as a lasting legacy of the OSL project
(See 7/8.6.5)
Podcasts and conferences allow extensive dissemination of OSL well beyond
the confines of the University to a wide community of teachers and
practitioners
6.3 Methodological issues
6.3.1 Scalability
It is accepted that the OSL methodology is, at face value, less cost effective than the
standard lecture format. Where 200 students can be accommodated in a lecture theatre
the optimum number for an OSL workshop is closer to 20. Furthermore, when compared
to a standard seminar, the extent of preparation needed for an OSL session can seem
daunting for academic staff.
The dominant systems of teaching and learning in UK universities (and
elsewhere) exist in their current from partly because there is little will to
change them, but mostly because they are cost effective: we have not yet
managed, for example, to develop a way to use OSL to engage two hundred
students in a lecture theatre using only one facilitator.” (Monk et al, 147)
30
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
However, there are several reasons why this economic rationalization is not fatal to the
further development of OSL.
The financial re-structuring of the UK universities framed by the Browne
Review has enshrined the principle that the money will follow the individual
student. Whilst this has struck some critics as compounding the unhelpful
‘student as consumer’ model, it at least carries the promise that Higher
Education will cater for the individual experience. OSL broadens the scope of
what universities can offer, reaches out to kinaesthetic and visual learners,
and emphasizes the value of the learning experience. It may be then that in
the medium to long term, when the effects of this restructuring is felt, the
economic rationale will change.
Modern technology has changed our perspective on the traditional lecture.
Now that lectures can be reproduced and disseminated on-line why not divert
resources to new modes of teaching such as OSL which cannot be reproduced
in the same way?
OSL does not make its claim in opposition to the traditional lecture or
seminar; rather it operates on the understanding that diversity in teaching
and learning is beneficial to both staff and students. OSL workshops aim to
find ways to complement the lecture and seminar formats rather than usurp
them. This is demonstrated in the case studies.
6.3.2 Adoption
The barriers to the adoption of OSL include: the previously stated economic concerns; the
structural conventions of departments (how money on teaching gets spent); the scarcity
of robust interdisciplinary models for teaching; the engrained pedagogic ethos
transmitted to new staff members; and individual skepticism. In order to overcome these
31
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
barriers and fulfill the aim of embedding OSL, the project has pursued the following
strategies.
Instead of simply promoting isolated workshops, the OSL project has
established more integrated patterns in which a workshop is set in a series
alongside a lecture, a theatre event, a symposium, or an academic reading list.
The idea is that the pattern can be discerned by practitioners and re-used with
a different subject matter. This is important for the transferability of OSL
procedures: staff who are new to OSL will be able to use established
structures and avail of a ‘tool kit’ of resources on-line in order to familiarize
themselves with the practice and cut down on their preparation time. If a new
pedagogic ethos is to become embedded it must happen, in part, by this
process of iteration and integration.
The OSL project team sought out partnerships with interested academics
within departments in order to roll out the OSL case studies on an
interdisciplinary basis. This provides a future anchor for the OSL method
within academic departments.
The OSL project works alongside other university training bodies such as
‘Student Careers and Skills’ and the ‘Learning and Development Centre’ in
order to attract new and varied users.
OSL has established itself within the mainframe of the University’s teaching
strategy via IATL. This provides the opportunity to promote OSL across all
departments and formulate transdisciplinary modules suited to the practice of
OSL which are not so reliant upon the infrastructures of individual
departments.
6.3.3 Standards
32
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The OSL methodology addresses the issue of standards, especially the practice of
intellectual rigour and the objective assessment of student achievement, according to the
following principles:
We argue that there is no good reason why reflective writing on practice,
reflective journals, viva voce examinations and creative performances cannot
be assessed in the same way, and with the same rigour, as standard academic
essays
The successful precedent for assessing OSL work has been set by the CAPITAL
centre in modules such as ‘Shakespeare without Chairs’ and ‘Drama,
Performance and Identity’. CAPITAL practitioners pointed to the results from
the National Student Survey in 2008 which highlighted ‘that students’ most
recurring criticism of the academic process was to do with assessment. Of the
seven categories on which students are invited to pass judgment. ‘Assessment
and feedback’ receives the lowest satisfaction rating -65% compared to an
average of 78% across the other six categories.’ As a response to this, there is
a felt need to work towards an ‘assessment for learning’ rather than an
‘assessment of learning’.
The OSL case study ‘Creative Issues in Law and Management’ by assessing
students on their creative performances as well as on their critical writing
emphasized the reflective continuity between the two activities of performing
and writing.
OSL workshops embedded within academic modules –the Beckett workshop
within the English module Literature in the Modern World (see 7/8.6.1); the
Ideas of Freedom workshop embedded within the Philosophy module of the
same name (see 7/8.1.2) – contribute to the students’ ongoing thought
processes and this is inevitably reflected in their exam achievements whether
or not a causal link between OSL and exam success can be established.
That all practice is related to assessment is a fact acknowledged by students:
OSL workshops which are not directly assessed nevertheless support student
33
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
excellence elsewhere –this was noted in the case study of Chemistry where
the OSL workshops complemented other assessed components on the
Chemistry curriculum (see7/8.1.1).
34
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
7. Implementation / 8.Outputs and findings
In this section we shall narrate the development of each project strand in turn and
present the outputs which resulted.
7/8.1 OSL Case Studies
6 case studies emerged over the last two years and constitute the core activities of the
project. The first four narrated here (7/8.1.1-4) applied for the OSL grant advertised
internally across the University in the academic year 2009-10. The final two are more
recent ventures originating in the academic year 2010-11. These latter illustrate
strategies for establishing new OSL projects within those academic departments which
had no prior experience of the OSL methodology.
Each project description contains a link to its home on the OSL website, which provides
further detailed reports on workshop methods, as well as archive material, including staff
and student interviews and multimedia documentation.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/osl_practice/casestudies
7/8.1.1
Case Study 1: Chemistry
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/chemistry/
Mr Nicholas Barker, Teacher Fellow, Chemistry
Mr Jonothan Heron, Research Practitioner, OSL Project
Dr Nicholas Monk, Research Fellow, OSL Project
Ms Loiusa Noffke, Lead Learner, Chemistry
Ms Isolda Romero, Lead Learner, Chemistry
Professor Peter Sadler, Project Coordinator, Chemistry
Dr Barry Sheils, Research Fellow, OSL Project
Fig.4. Project Team, Chemistry
35
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The Chemistry Department working in collaboration with the CAPITAL centre established
an OSL component for the whole of its first year cohort in the academic year 2008-9.
This was a workshop on the Periodic Table co-conceived by Dr Nicholas Monk and Mr
Jonathan Heron from CAPITAL and Professor Peter Sadler from Chemistry. When the OSL
team inherited this project in 2009 it aimed to refine the existing workshop model, reflect
on its success, and develop further sustainable OSL interventions within Chemistry. This
was undertaken by gathering and analyzing feedback, incorporating 2 Chemistry PhD
candidates as lead learners and developing a second workshop series for penultimate
year undergraduate students, ‘Real World Chemistry’.
Workshop 1: Famous Chemists/Periodic Table
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/chemistry/periodic_table/
Context
This first workshop presented several strategic challenges for the OSL project. It involved
the entire first year intake of Chemistry students (c100-130 student participants each
year), a number which necessitated 4 sessions in total; it required the facilitators to pitch
the workshop at the right level for undergraduates embarking upon a new course in a
new learning environment; and it demanded a sound integration of the OSL workshop
method with the academic content of Chemistry, a subject viewed as a ‘hard’ science and
traditionally taught through lectures or laboratory demonstrations.
Method
Although the ambition was to challenge students who were new to university through
both the form and content of the workshop, it was also felt that the theme should be
36
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
accessible. The Periodic Table proved ideal in this respect, since it was familiar to all first
year Chemistry students but open to university-level complexity. In the second year of
the workshop another thematic strand was added: Famous Chemists. It was proposed
that this would provide an historical and ‘inspirational’ perspective on Chemistry and
cause students to reflect on what it meant to be a good chemist.
Outputs and Findings
Although many students who had not encountered performance workshops before
declared their apprehension in advance of the workshop, the attendance figures over the
three years are very positive. Indeed, since the workshop is effectively non-compulsory replacing a normal lecture where student attendance is not registered- figures of 91%
attendance in the first year rising to 99% in the second are very impressive. This was
undoubtedly aided by the integration of the mini-research project which after being
trialed in the first year was emphasised more strongly thereafter.
The students had an opportunity to reflect at the end of the workshop and record their
responses on project questionnaires. Over the two years of the project 167 out of 226
students have rated their experience as good or excellent. This is a positive response
which reflects the general consensus that the workshop was a good ‘experience’. In an
attempt to further define the value of the workshop experience we asked the same
students whether they felt they better understood Inorganic Chemistry as a result of the
workshop: 59% said that it had, 28% were undecided and 13% said that it had not. This is
a slightly less positive result but nonetheless promising for a method which challenges
students’ perceptions of university teaching. The clear majority of students felt that they
had taken something academically useful away from the sessions. One might imagine
that the same question asked of a lecture might elicit a more positive response, but
bound up with this is the students’ feeling that a lecture is what university learning is
supposed to feel like. With this in mind it is perhaps also a promising sign that over a
quarter of the students were ‘undecided’ about whether they had learned something in
37
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
the workshop. This suggests some ongoing refection about what it might mean to learn in
a workshop environment and how different formats might challenge fixed notions of
learning.
In 2010-11 we asked all the participants whether they would recommend this workshop
to other students. Again the results were positive: 89% said they would recommend it.
This shows that Science students, who might ordinarily be cast as further removed from
performance based pedagogy than Humanities students, generally come away from OSL
with a very positive outlook. Obviously this recommendation should help sustain OSL
within Chemistry and promote it across the Sciences.
The active support of academic staff from the Chemistry Department has been equally
important to the success of the Periodic Table/Famous Chemists workshop. This has
ensured that, as well as producing a new communicative way of doing Higher Education
Chemistry, the workshop has been integrated academically. A journal article reflecting on
the origin and development of this project has been co-authored by Chemistry staff and
OSL practitioners and published in Chemistry Education Research and Practice, thus
continuing the collaboration and contributing to the project’s dissemination strategy:
Nicola J. Farrer, Nicholas Monk, Jonathan Heron, Julie Ann Lough and Peter Sadler (2010)
‘(RSC)2: chemistry, performance, and pedagogy – an interactive approach to periodic
trends’ Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 11, 308-313.
Workshop 2: Real World Chemistry
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/chemistry/real_world_chemistry/
Context
In 2010-11, building on the success of the first workshop, the OSL team extended its
collaboration with Chemistry into a second initiative, ‘Real World Chemistry’. This was
38
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
aimed at students who wanted to develop their professional skills and think about how to
communicate the political, economic and social applications of Chemistry to different
audiences. We also anticipated that once piloted this format might work across other
disciplines as a ‘Real World’ paradigm.
Method
This project entailed a series of three sessions. The first explored Chemistry thematically
through theory building exercises in open space and introduced the students to their ‘real
world’ research project; the second involved enactive work on body language and
presentation skills; and the third consisted of the students presenting their real world
research project to a mixed panel of experts and non-experts.
Outputs and Findings
As one might expect of a group of self-selecting students whose enthusiasm was
apparent throughout the sessions, the feedback was very positive. All 12 students said
they would recommend the sessions to other students and expressed an equal interest in
experiencing more OSL events themselves. We also asked them to reflect more generally
on OSL in the context of other university teaching methods. Everyone agreed that it was
valuable to use a variety of teaching methods, 11 out of 12 said that OSL offered a
distinctive way of learning about their subject, and all 12 agreed that these session had
helped them think about the application of what they learned in lectures. When we asked
which skills they felt these sessions had helped develop, as well as the more expected
answer of presentation skills, critical skills figured prominently.
One very promising outcome for the OSL project is that Student Careers and Skills have
successfully applied for STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) funding to run
a version of Real World Chemistry in other departments. This means that the OSL method
will be integrated across the Science and Engineering faculties in the next academic year.
39
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
7/8.1.2
Case Study 2: Philosophy
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/philosophy/
Naomi Eilan, Philosophy
Jonothan Heron, OSL practitioner
Sean Hudson, Lead Learner
Eileen John, Philosophy
Ceara Rice, Lead learner
Jamie Williams, Lead Learner
Fig.5. Project Team, Philosophy
The collaboration between OSL and the Philosophy department began with the CAPITAL
centre in the academic year 2008-9. However this involved only those students enrolled
on the Philosophy and Literature joint honours degree. In the two years of this project we
aimed to sustain and develop the existing collaboration with Philosophy and Literature
but also develop our partnership with Philosophy more generally. Consequently, in 201011 we developed, in addition to our established workshops with the 1st Year Philosophy
and Literature cohort (c.20 students per year), an OSL intervention for the whole of first
year Philosophy (an additional 80 students). This was an attempt to challenge the
preconception that OSL, while it is amenable to subjects with a literary component, is not
applicable to more abstract disciplines.
Philosophy and Literature Induction Workshop
40
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/philosophy/philosophy_and_literature/
Context
This workshop has been integrated as an induction into the 1st year Phil-lit degree,
planned collaboratively by Jonathan Heron from the OSL project and Eileen John from
Philosophy. It took for its subject matter a key text -this year it was Nikolai Gogol’s ‘Diary
of a Madman’- and sought to offer an embodied means of close reading. The learning
objective was stated as follows: to make the interpretive and creative decisions made by
participants relevant to conceptual understanding, reasoning, and critical engagement
with texts. This extends the premise of the Philosophy and Literature degree that texts
can be productively read in more than one academic idiom – the literary and the
philosophical– to the idioms of physical movement and visual representation.
Method
The workshop was formed around several text-based exercises, including selecting
passages, creating thematic tableaux in pairs or in groups and then organizing tableaux
into a chronology or plot. The session built towards this chronology as a collaborative
performance piece, and in the process demanded that the students make a series of
strategic choices. We shall return to this imperative placed on participants to select and
choose; but it is equally valuable to note that the discursive relation to the text was not
done away with. Within the process of selecting passages and constructing images the
students were given several opportunities to reflect vocally on their decisions.
41
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Philosophy Workshop 2: Ideas of Freedom
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/philosophy/ideas_of_freedom_workshop/
Context
This second workshop, delivered in Spring Term 2010-11, covered new ground: it
attempted to engage a more diverse range of students from beyond the Phil-Lit cohort,
including single honours Philosophy, Philosophy and Maths, and Philosophy Political and
Economics; and it embedded itself within a 1st year Philosophy module, Ideas of Freedom.
Method
The workshop was conceived by OSL’s Jonathan Heron in partnership with Eileen John
and Naomi Eilan from Philosophy as a focussed academic intervention. It was positioned
strategically between two of Eileen’s lectures on ‘Creativity and Art’ in order that its more
experimental form could embody the ongoing themes of the module.
It was felt that the sandwiching of the workshop between these two lectures would
enhance the level of student engagement by allowing Jonathan to build on the students’
established reflections. It is significant that as well as working intensively with Samuel
Beckett’s short play ‘Not I’ the session managed to incorporate an embodied
interpretation of Plato’s Ion, a text discussed by Eileen John in the preceding lecture on
the module. This meant that the focus upon the freedoms and constraints of selfconsciousness brought to the fore by the Beckett play was reapplied to a canonical
philosophical text. In particular, the embodied pair work highlighted the significance of
performance and social relation to the mode of philosophical dialogue.
Outputs and Findings
Overall there was little discernable difference between the response of Phil-Lit students
and the responses of students from other strands of Philosophy. 91% of all Philosophy
42
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
respondents said they would recommend the session to other students. 60% were keen
or very keen to experience more interactive workshops themselves.
7/8.1.3
Case Study 3: Critical Issues in Law and Management (CILM), Warwick Business School (WBS)
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/business/
Jonathan Heron, OSL practitioner
Rachel King, lead-learner and OSL practitioner
Grier Palmer, Principal Teaching Fellow, WBS
Rob Toole, Senior Teaching Fellow, WBS
Fig.6. Project Team, CILM
Context
CILM is a 3rd year module for students doing the Law and Business degree (approximately
60 students each year) which developed an OSL component in 2007-8 with the CAPITAL
centre and continued to evolve it thereafter in partnership with the OSL project team. It
has provided a distinctive opportunity for the OSL project in two ways: integrating OSL
into a syllabus alongside critical reading and reflective writing projects and involving the
OSL method in the process of final assessment.
Method
This is the most ambitious case study in the OSL project due to the breadth of the
syllabus –the module covers a full two terms of work– and the extent of OSL’s academic
integration. There are three major components to the module, ‘Case Study
Presentations’, ‘Book Review workshops’ and ‘Reflective Writing’ as well as two
43
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
introductory sessions: one introducing issues of critical thinking and reflection, the other,
in the open studio space, introducing the experimental aspects of the module, especially
issues of embodiment and self-presentation.
Case Study Presentations
Each student group or syndicate (comprising approximately six students) was expected to
perform 3 case study presentations throughout the year, two in the first term and one in
the second. A case study took the form of a controversial real world issue which has legal
and/or commercial consequences. For example, this year there was one on work-related
suicide and another on sexual harassment. The identical case study was distributed to all
student groups but each group was assigned a different interest in the case; so it may be
that they had to act the part of the trade union, the family of the bereaved or the
company solicitor.
The students had two weeks to research the case from their given perspective and
prepare their presentation. They were actively encouraged to avoid PowerPoint or static
presentation styles. In this two week period they were also given time in an open studio
space where they were to develop their work with Rachel King who was available, as both
the lead learner on the project and theatre-in-education specialist, to encourage them to
think creatively and dramatically about their presentations.
Book Review Workshops
The Book review workshops followed a similar timetable to the case study presentations:
two sessions in the first term and a final session (leading to assessment) in the second
term. Here the OSL dimension was less obvious since the focus of each session was upon
a themed series of articles, reviews and films. This year themes included ‘leadership’ and
‘Groupthink’. Each individual student was responsible for introducing a single work from
the series to the other members of his student group, providing a critical perspective and
responding to questions. Although the emphasis here was on students researching the
material (finding out about its sources) and critically challenging its ideological
44
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
perspective, there was also a demand that students present their readings coherently
and robustly to one another in real time. In order that this forum model could flourish the
book review workshops were convened in flexible teaching spaces and guided by
‘facilitutors’.
Here the endeavour to inspire the students to live discussion utilized OSL principles. The
‘facilitutors’ were PhD students from a variety of academic disciplines. Importantly, they
were not ‘experts’ in the field. They were there to pose open questions and help bring
the student presentations into dialogue with one another. This challenge of this role
proved to be one of managing the students’ expectation that an expert lead the group.
The learning space proved vital in trying to meet this challenge of encouraging the
students to take responsibility for their own group dynamic.
Written Reflection
There were three written assignments for this module: a reflective piece at the end of the
first term; a written Book review, along with a second reflective piece; and a long case
essay.
The reflective pieces are not typical academic essays. Rather than asking them to
represent what they know in writing, students are invited to reflect on their own process
of learning: how have they approached the module, how have they found working with
the other students, how have they engaged with the topics covered. This process, ideally,
is more than an academic assessment. It also helps the students to think about their
learning style –what works for them- and ultimately encourages them to take more
responsibility for their own learning. In this respect, this kind of reflective essay is central
to the ambitions of OSL.
Outputs and Findings
Central to the ambitions of this module was that the students hoping to begin careers in
Law or Business would develop their professional skills and learn to be both creative and
45
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
critical when confronting unstructured real world problems. The students were very
positive about this outcome, highlighting several different facets to their learning through
a student-centred process, including: group work, independence, risk and confident
presentation skills.
This module has been important for demonstrating that OSL can play a substantial role in
an assessed academic module beyond English or Theatre studies. Both reflective written
work and assessed presentations, though unfamiliar to students, have proved effective
measures of student skill and engagement. (See Appendix 3 and
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/assessment/ for OSL assessment information)
It is clear from the student feedback that there is a perceived benefit in professional
development emerging from the practice of this module. According to the Department
for Business, Innovation and Skills, Universities are the “providers of life chances for
individuals in an environment where skills and the ability to apply those skills are
essential preconditions for employment.” The 2008 CBI survey found that 86% of firms
ranked employability skills as the most important factor when recruiting: “graduates who
can communicate well and work as part of a team.” It is satisfying for the OSL project
team that students are recognizing this value for themselves:
I would say that it was one of the modules that I can see taught me most out
of all the modules that I studied, because there are a lot of skills that seem
very transferable. I think my essay writing after CLIM probably improved
significantly. Same goes for presentation skills. Also other general skills that I
think you can use both at work and in other modules at university.
46
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
7/8.1.4
Case Study 4: Representing the Other: Verbatim Theatre
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/representingotherness/
Annouchka Bayley, performance artist,
teacher and workshop facilitator
Nese Tosun, co-facilitator
Fig.10. Project team, Representing the Other
Context
Running in parallel with its strategy to embed OSL within the practices of academic
departments such as Chemistry, Philosophy and Business, the OSL project has sought to
support experimental transdisciplinary practices. ‘Representing the Other: Verbatim
Theatre’ funded in 2010-11 is an example of an OSL project which is not housed by an
academic department, yet which seeks to supplement the academic activities of its
participants.
One of the principles underlying the OSL methodology is that the open space should
serve as a third or liminal space in which the canons and conventions of individual
academic disciplines are mutually and creatively disrupted. Thinking subjects emerge in
the midst of this creative tension.
This workshop series, taking for its theme dual heritage identity, pursues this cultural and
sociological theme; but its experimental and open ethos, inviting participants from any
academic department and at any level of academic study, also creates its own third
space. In a university setting the relation between academic disciplines can seem every
bit as challenging and interesting as that between national or ethnic cultures. Part of the
47
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
importance of this project then, lies in the collaborative dynamic created by the profile of
its participants. It attracted 15 participants from 8 different academic departments, 7 of
whom were postgraduate students. Although not all were dual-heritage themselves, they
all expressed an interest in the dual heritage experience and a willingness to use verbatim
theatre to explore the topic.
Method
There was a series of five OSL workshops involving embodied work and academic
readings: ‘Self-Reflexivity/ The Personal vs the Private in Representation of
Otherness’; ‘Otherness, Lack, & the Performance of Self’; ‘Dynamics of Observation,
Representation and Difference in Performance’; ‘Ethnography in the
Academy’; ‘From Interview to Stage, Creation/Rehearsal Workshop’. These
workshops led to a final performance in which the students had the opportunity to
use Verbatim Theatre techniques to represent ‘themselves’ in front of an invited
audience and then to reflect on the uses and limitations of these techniques.
For discussion on the pedagogical uses of Ethnodrama and Verbatim theatre see:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/ethnodrama/
Outputs and Findings
The response to this OSL workshop series was extremely positive with 80% of participants
who finished the course agreeing that the teaching was ‘as good as’ or ‘better’ than other
teaching they experienced at Warwick and 90% rating the course content ‘outstanding’.
Of 15 original participants, 10 attended regularly until the end. The single reason given by
those who dropped out before the end was that of time constraints due to University
course work. Indeed those who did drop out expressed regret at having to do so.
48
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Among those who did finish the course the consensus was they would have liked more
sessions; and that despite the pressures of academic work they found the joining of
personal experience to academic readings to be very productive.
This is an add-on [to my university course work], though I do take it seriously –
reading everything given to us to read. I find myself talking about the
workshops with friends often.
I see it as complementary to myself more than anything else, and my
experience, academic as well as personal. Personal and academic interests
usually overlap in my case anyway.
From the perspective of the OSL project two things stand out here: the conviction that
this transdisciplinary model can have broad academic appeal, a belief which has been
borne out by the response to a recent IATL proposal to run an interdisciplinary module
open to students across the University on the theme of identity (see 9/10.4), and the
application of the OSL methodology to the work of postgraduate students. To date the
OSL method has been delivered overwhelmingly to undergraduate students but
collaborations such as this one remind us that postgraduate research students are
increasingly demanding opportunities to improve their professional skills and collaborate
in ways which challenge the lone-scholar paradigm, especially in the Humanities and
Social Sciences.
49
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
7/8.1.5
Case Study 5: Mathematics
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/maths/
Mr Owen Daniel, Mathematics
Mr Jonathan Heron, OSL practitioner
Dr Barry Sheils, OSL practitioner
Dr David Wood, Teaching Fellow,
Mathematics
Fig.11. Project team, Mathematics
Context
These final two case studies in Maths and Psychiatry will focus on the process of seeding
OSL within academic departments. These should help identify some of the conditions for
achieving new, sustainable partnerships across the University. Whereas in the previous
case studies we were interested in how OSL is refined, delivered and embedded
academically, and how students respond to it, now we are asking, what strategy is
appropriate for introducing OSL to departments that have not encountered it before?
One might have the impression that a partnership between OSL and Maths is a perfect fit,
since OSL is a pedagogy which reflects on spatial relations and the permutations of
physical movement, and Maths is a discipline which encourages collaborative work in
communal spaces. There were nonetheless potential barriers to this collaboration,
including the conventions of teaching Maths via large lectures and small tutorial groups;
and a persistent doubt about whether an experiential pedagogy could intervene
effectively in a subject which deals in high levels of abstraction.
50
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Our initial strategy for overcoming these barriers was twofold: we decided to hold an
interdisciplinary OSL and Maths event using the Student Ensemble, and to approach a
teaching fellow within the Maths department to act as a liaison with the OSL project. This
approach was based on our experience with long standing projects in Chemistry,
Philosophy and the Warwick Business School. Without a committed partner within the
academic department concerned –someone who is willing to co-conceive the workshops
with OSL practitioners– it is difficult to sustain a meaningful teaching practice. We felt
equally that an event, designed to attract mathematicians to the OSL venues, introduce
the interdisciplinary ethos and trail some OSL workshop activities, was vital to build
confidence for such a novel partnership.
Method
An ideal opportunity to pursue this strategy arrived in the person of Dr Stephen Abbott, a
visiting research fellow at the University of Cambridge. Although by profession a
mathematician, Stephen was researching the thematic and formal representations of
Maths in the theatre. After contacting him it became obvious that his work looking at
theatre pieces about mathematicians or mathematical discoveries could provide a basis
for OSL activity. Using the trained actors from the Ensemble to dramatise excerpts from
those plays Stephen was researching, we presented a kind of interdisciplinary and
pedagogical conundrum: can these theatrical works be used to teach Maths; and can
these open rehearsal spaces be further used to formally explore mathematical problems?
In order to respond to this conundrum we invited Dr David Wood, Senior Teaching Fellow
in the Maths department, and Mr Owen Daniel, Postgraduate mathematician, to lead a
speculative workshop which would immediately follow the talk/drama presentation from
Stephen.
Outputs and Findings
The variety and value of the ideas expressed in the plenary session were hugely
promising. They proved there was a pre-existing commitment among those who attended
51
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
to embodied work in Maths, but that such work had not yet found its home in the
University.
In order to build on the impetus created by this inaugural event we met with David
Wood to discuss the possibility of more embedded OSL activity within Maths for the next
academic year. The result of this discussion is a new venture with IATL under the
‘Pedagogic intervention’ rubric to hold a series of OSL workshops for second year
mathematicians on the theme of abstraction. This intervention is directed by David who
feels that the beginning of the second year is a key time for many students who struggle
with the introduction of new mathematical concepts – especially abstraction. An
effectively planned OSL session, or series of sessions, could be successful in orienting
those who have fallen behind in lectures and tutorials.
This proposal is a positive outcome for the project. It realises, in the form of a targeted
pedagogic intervention, the ambitions which were inherent in our initial event, namely
those of applying the OSL method academically and creating new partnerships.
7/8.1.6 Psychiatry
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/psychiatry/
Dr Matthew Broome, Psychiatry
Mr David Hall, lead learner, Psychiatry
Mr Jonathan Heron, OSL practitioner
Members of the Student Ensemble
Fig.12. Project team, Psychiatry
Context
This project created an exchange between two practice-based student groups, the
undergraduates of the Student Ensemble and postgraduates of the Warwick Medical
School. It emerged from a collaboration between OSL Research Associate Jonathan Heron
52
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
and Associate Professor of Psychiatry Matthew Broome. They first collaborated at
Shakespeare on the Brain (Warwick Arts Centre, March 2009), then launched the
interdisciplinary research group Beckett and the Brain with Dr Liz Barry (CAPITAL Centre,
November2009). Their OSL collaboration was focused around the work of the student
ensemble and their creative project with Fail Better Productions, Diary of a
Madman/Discords (Warwick Arts Centre, January 2011) and the existing practice of the
Clinical Skills Laboratory at the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, a core part
of the medical school’s Psychiatry curriculum.
We were led by four research questions
Where is the intersection between Psychiatry and performance?
How can we engage medical students through performance events?
How do we use these events to engage academic departments in embodied
pedagogies?
Can these pedagogical practices improve clinical skills?
Method
This project was carried out in three phases. First of all there was an exploration session
which explored how to apply creative practice to psychiatric education. Jonathan Heron
and five members of the Student Ensemble attended the Clinical Skills Laboratory at the
Caludon Centre, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, a core part of the medical
school’s psychiatry curriculum, to observe the use of role play and simulation within
medical training. Then there was a development event which brought together clinical
and creative practitioners in a creative exchange involving rehearsed readings by
professional actors (from Fail Better Productions) and members of the Student Ensemble.
In this phase we were specifically exploring how to engage medical learners through
performance projects and enactive pedagogies.
53
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Outputs and Findings
Finally there was an evaluation forum attended by staff, students and OSL practitioners
exploring how to embed OSL workshops into a formal curriculum. We held a Speculative
Lunch to discuss ways to embed the work of the practice team within the University
curriculum. In the academic year 2011-12, an application will be made to either the
Warwick Medical School, to launch a new module concerning the Medical Humanities, or
to the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, for a ‘pedagogic intervention’ within
the medical curriculum, using open-space methods to improve clinical skills. We are also
actively exploring the publication of our research in inter-disciplinary areas.
7/8.2 Training
It was a core ambition of the OSL project to embed sustainable practice across the
University. This meant establishing OSL case studies and centrally advertising OSL
teaching patterns, but also laying the ground for new OSL initiatives to emerge beyond
the parameters of the project. In order to empower Warwick educators to adopt OSL for
their own professional purposes the project team held a series of training events
designed to introduce workshop techniques to a wider audience. These included: a
progressive series of training events focused on OSL technology led by NTF Robert O
’Toole, ‘OSL Media Workshops: Film-making using iMac’; an open event introducing
techniques of embodiment led by Jonothan Heron, NTF Jonothan Neelands and Nicholas
Monk, ‘Ice-breakers and Warm-ups Workshop’; and a session demonstrating how to work
with more advanced material led by Stephen Cornes, ‘Dramatised Case Studies
Workshop’. These were well attended sessions attracting staff and students from across
the University.
The most significant OSL training initiative was the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher
Education Workshop Leadership, designed to support the professional development of
OSL practitioners. This was planned as an accredited Warwick University course
administered by IATL aiming to support the development of up to 15 new OSL
54
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
practitioners each year. It constituted a major part of the project’s strategy to embed OSL
practice for the future. Unfortunately, in Autumn term 2010 the financial plan was
deemed unviable by the university and the original plan scaled back. It has been run as a
training session on Higher Education workshop leadership as part of the Warwick
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice (PCAPP) hosted by the
Learning and Development Centre (LDC).
The first OSL-based session on workshop facilitation took place on the 23rd of May. The
workshop was available to academics across the University, in all faculties, and at all
career stages. The session made full use of the Ensemble as subjects and interlocutors for
the participants. The session was over-subscribed, and others are planned for the new
academic year.
As a complement to this session, a range of OSL opportunities have been embedded in
staff training programmes, including: for all early career academics, as a mandatory
element of the Warwick Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice
(PCAPP), ‘OSL–based training for large and small group teaching’; for postgraduate
students, as an optional element of the Warwick Postgraduate Award: Introduction to
Academic and Professional Practice (IAPP) Part 2, ‘OSL-based Teaching for Creativity in
Small Group Sessions’; and for the Graduate School Skills Programme and the Learning
and Development Centre, one-off workshops on ‘Practical Networking’.
Although PCAAP is a credible OSL training route, and attractive to early career
academics, it remains an ambition of this project team to establish a distinctive
postgraduate qualification in OSL in order to recognize and communicate its professional
value across the HE community.
7/8.3 The Student Ensemble
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/studentensemble/
55
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The student ensemble was inaugurated under CAPITAL by Jonathan Heron as a semiprofessional theatre company whose expertise was utilized in the delivery of OSL
projects.
During the period of the OSL project the ensemble has been involved in two major
creative projects, The Persephone Project (2009) and Discords (2010). Members also
contributed to a range of teaching interventions across the disciplines: Networking
workshops for the Learning and Development Centre and the Graduate Skills Programme,
demonstration/performances for courses and modules such as Philosophy and Literature,
Literature in the Modern World, European Theatre, Maths and Drama, and for public
events such as Shakespeare on the Brain for Brain Awareness Week. (A full list of
Ensemble activities is available in Appendix 4).
The creative legacy of the Ensemble in the form of their professional productions is in no
way dissociated from its work as a pedagogical resource. Discords, as well as showing to
the general public was assigned to Philosophy and Literature students (see 7/8.1.2) and
psychiatry students for introducing the theme of mental health in performance (see
7/8/1.5).
According to its director and OSL practitioner Jonathan Heron
Training of the student ensemble is a central strand because that provides an
engine room for ideas- I have to be connected to big questions about theatre
and performance otherwise I wouldn’t be able to apply these to other
disciplines.
The practice of the Student Ensemble has been officially embedded within IATL.
Jonathan has been appointed to the position of IATL Teaching Fellow as of August 2011
and is holding auditions for the 2011/12 Ensemble.
7/8.4 Longitudinal Study
In order to assess the impact of OSL on students’ professional practice we have
developed a longitudinal study to follow them into employment. Out of those students
who have directly experienced OSL at Warwick the percentage graduating before the
56
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
academic year 2010-11 is still relatively small. We have two major catchments: 09/10
graduates from CILM (c50) and 09/10 graduates from Philosophy and Literature (19). We
have also attempted to contact alumni from across the University who may have
experienced the OSL methodology through CAPITAL.
Next year this number will be more than trebled. There is a year group from Chemistry
(c120), a further cohort from CILM (60)and Phil-Lit (25), as well as students from English
Literature, Cultural Policy Studies and interdisciplinary modules such as ‘Representing the
Other’ all of whom will graduate in 2011 having experienced OSL. As we hope to sustain
these numbers year on year it is crucial that we further refine our strategy for staying in
touch with OSL alumni.
Thus far we have pursued two strategies for contacting alumni.
We distributed an alumni questionnaire as an attachment to a generic communication
sent by The Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO). As this meant that we
were contacting alumni who had not experienced OSL we asked about the effectiveness
of teaching methods at Warwick and whether the respondent perceived, in retrospect,
any benefit in workshop style teaching at university. We received 23 completed
questionnaires. Interestingly, although only 4 of these respondents had experience of
CAPITAL or OSL, over half of them (12) indicated that workshops would be a more
efficient mode of teaching at HE level than lectures. Skills associated with the workshop
but not with the lecture, included ‘Teamwork’, ‘Communication’, ‘Decision-making’,
‘Leadership’, ‘Initiative’, ‘Confidence’, and ‘Openness to experiment and risk’.
We distributed a second questionnaire (Appendix 2) aimed specifically at those who
graduated in 2010 from Philosophy and Literature. All of these alumni had experienced
OSL while at Warwick so we asked them about their opinion of OSL, whether they felt the
skills and esteem they gained from OSL contributed to their employability and whether
they used these assets in their day to day work.
57
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
There were 19 Philosophy and Literature graduates. Of these 4 responded, all of whom
were in employment: a secondary school teacher, a waitress and part-time editorial
assistant, a gallery attendant and an administrator. All four had positive memories of OSL
and their comments also suggested a deeper appreciation for the techniques of OSL in
creating a memorable experience. That they avow a memory for the detail of the
workshops as well as for the general experience confirms our impression that active
learning helps many students retain the import of lessons more usefully than when they
are in a passive relation to the teacher (e.g. in a lecture).
Specifically, I certainly remember the Beckett workshops. We still quote
“what!?...who!?...she?...NO!!!!” to one another.
I still remember a lot of the content covered in Open Space workshops, which
is not the case for seminars/lectures!
I remember a great sense of comradeship with other students – helping one
another to understand a text better through the use of space and physical
expression.Engagement with the text in a dimensional way - particularly with
scripts this was helpful. Great to make visual what is on the page. Easier to
remember in exams and great for confidence in expressing yourself in front of
others.
When asked about how OSL has contributed to their employability and day-to-day work
all four students acknowledged the importance of soft skills and self-confidence.
In terms of very general personal development/communication etc.
I suppose so. I’m currently working as a waitress to fund work experience, and
communication is essential. I think Open Space Learning was very good for
those of us who are often too nervous to speak in seminar or talk openly
about our thoughts. There was a certain liberty in being able to go into a class
room and have lots of space to express yourself.
One alumnus, the secondary school teacher, could point to a more concrete OSL
contribution however, allowing that she cited from her practical Shakespeare seminars in
a job application for a teaching position. She has also used the OSL techniques she
experienced at Warwick in her own teaching, demonstrating that OSL has an organic
legacy beyond the university.
58
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
I have used some of the drama techniques from the Phil-Lit weekend in my own
lessons and a lot of the activities we completed in practical Shakespeare
seminars in A-Level lessons.
It is clear that this sample can only provide an indication of the impact of OSL on
students’ post university employment. We have as yet no record of whether OSL has had
an impact on student career choices for example. While it is disappointing that we have
not had a better response so far, this is in part attributable to the general level of alumni
response to questionnaires of this nature, which according to DARO stands at 20-25%, as
well as to the number of relevant students who have graduated before this year. As we
have already suggested, next year we will have a much larger pool of graduates to survey.
There are measures we can put in place to make sure we get a telling response in future:
work with Student Careers and Skills to track students who have participated in
OSL initiatives such as the ‘Real World’ paradigm. For example, it will be
particularly useful to establish how the skills derived from OSL workshops help
science graduates who don’t want to pursue careers in the science field transfer
into other areas of employment.
build a specific network of OSL alumni. Instead of sending alumni one off
questionnaires, it will be more effective to involve them in an on-line OSL forum
and to include them on the invitation list for future OSL events happening at
Warwick through IATL.
7/8.5 E-resource
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
This resource was a live OSL archive for the duration of the project. It contained the OSL
blog where staff, students and lead learners could archive their responses to workshops,
record more general reflections, and upload any OSL documentation; working papers
from the OSL project team; and an on-line manual of OSL practice, including workshop
59
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
techniques, case study reports, lesson plans, OSL podcasts and a handbook of OSL
technology: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/technology/
The website has been developed over the lifetime of the project and from October 2010
to May2011 has had 540 000 hits, averaging over 250 hits a day. It will be preserved going
forward as a practical OSL resource and forum for further developments.
7/8.6 Dissemination
As befits a creative HE pedagogy the OSL project has developed a creative and varied
dissemination strategy. It has combined practice-based work with academic publications
and electronic resources.
7/8.6.1 Practice
One major component of this strategy has been the further dissemination of OSL practice
within Warwick University. As well as our six case studies OSL has been trialed and
integrated into modules in several academic departments across all faculties of the
university. In the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies over the two
years of the project c180 students have participated in an OSL workshops on Samuel
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot which constitutes part of the first year module ‘Literature in
the Modern World’. In the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies approximately 50 students
have experienced the OSL conceived workshop, The Risk Factor. Additional OSL
workshops and events have been offered to and experienced by staff and students in
Medicine, Law, Business, Sociology, Education, and Theatre studies. Professional
development workshops on ‘Networking’ or ‘Presence and Presentation’ administered by
the Learning and Development Centre and Student Careers and Skills, have been
attended by a wide variety of students. There has also been an interdisciplinary workshop
dedicated to exploring the application of OSL to postgraduate research, ‘Collaboration
and Co-authorship in the Humanities and Social Sciences’ attended by 25 PhD students
and staff: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/openspacelearning/entry/collaboration_and_coauthorship/
60
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
These events have been documented in various ways –feedback, pictures, videos- and are
archived on the OSL website.
7/8.6.2 Open Seminars/Demonstrations
As well as targeted academic events, the project has run an extensive programme of
open seminars and demonstrations which explore the values and applications of OSL.
Many of these seminars were led by invited speakers/practitioners from outside
Warwick. This strategy allowed the Warwick community to avail of new expertise in the
OSL field and promoted collaboration between different HE institutions. One example of
collaboration is that between Nicholas Monk from Warwick, Professor Alan Owens from
the University of Chester and Professor Clive Holtham of CASS Business School, City
University on a ’Creativity for Professional Practice’ seminar. Anna Newell and Dr. Melissa
McCullough came from Queens University, Belfast to hold a double session: one of
particular interest to the medical school on ‘Using Devised Theatre to explore a topical
issue in bioethics’ and another more general session on interdisciplinary pedagogy.
There were also open generic seminars which reflected on the various themes and
mechanisms of OSL: for example, an Open Space Technology workshop led by Paul Sutton
of Collar and Tie, ‘What do we define as the creative pedagogies of Open Space Learning,
how do we value them and how do we convince others to do the same?’; ‘Ensemble as
Vital Practice’ by Jonothan Neelands and Mary Johnson; and ‘Future Learning
Technologies Workshop’ by Robert O Toole and Paul Sutton from Collar and Tie. These
were attended largely by staff interested in contemporary developments in HE pedagogy
Finally there were open sessions which helped showcase OSL applications. A series of
sessions led by Professor John O’Toole from The University of Melbourne on ‘Working
with Complex Texts’ demonstrated how OSL techniques could be used to lead students
through close and nuanced readings of literary texts, thus echoing some of the work done
in the Philosophy and CILM case studies.
61
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
7/8.6.3 Conferences
Once again because of the practical nature of OSL work it was desirable to combine active
workshop demonstrations with conventional academic papers as often as possible. In
June 2010 De Montfort University hosted the World Congress of the International
Theatre Association Conference at which Jonothan Neelands and Jonathan Heron led a
double session presentation and workshop: ‘The Dramatised University: The Uses and
Values of Applied Theatre and Rehearsal Room approaches across the HE curriculum’. In
November 2010 Jonathan Heron convened a workshop demonstration at the Centre for
Education and Industry Conference: ‘Making Work-related Learning Work’.
Jonothan Neelands led the international dissemination of Warwick’s OSL project at the
Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Here he gave a public lecture alongside Dr.
Peter O’Connor from the University of Auckland on Open-space Learning and its
contribution to developing creative democratic citizenship. He also led a series of masterclasses and laboratory sessions exploring the relation between OSL and the principles of
Socratic inquiry through the arts.
Further international links were created by Nicholas Monk who conceived and facilitated
OSL workshops on Capital punishment at the University of Nebraska and by Jonathan
Heron who participated in the New York University Forum on Theatre for Public Health,
both in April 2011.
The OSL project has also hosted conferences at Warwick. In May 2011 there was a one
day colloquium ‘Ethnodrama to Applied Drama’. Demonstrating how public testimonials,
journals, and discipline specific data can provide the groundwork for practical workshops
(using the practice-as-research paradigm), and potentially for original dramatic
productions, has been a significant strand of the OSL project, above all in the
‘Representing the Other’ case study (7/8.1.4) and the Ethnodrama project (7/8.6.5).
62
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Therefore it was important to have a summative event to record and evaluate the work
done in this area.
We held a final dissemination conference entitled The Ecology of a Whole Campus
Approach to Creativity on 27 June 2011. This was an opportunity to report on the success
of the overall project and confirm its legacy. Speakers included Professor Ron Barnett
(Institute of Education, London); Professor Rob Pope (Oxford Brookes University);
Professor Jonathan Bate (University of Warwick); Dr Eileen John (University of Warwick),
Professor Peter Sadler (University of Warwick); Dr Matthew Broome (University of
Warwick), Grier Palmer (University of Warwick) and members of the project team. The
event was attended by a capacity audience of 60 including participants from the
University of Brighton, Liverpool John Moores, Coventry City College, University of
Birmingham; University of Gloucestershire; London Metropolitan, University of East
Anglia, Nottingham Trent University, Bath Spa University. The proceedings will be made
available on the OSL web site.
7/8.6.4 Publications
The project aim to establish OSL as a recognizable idiom across the HE sector was
significantly met through the publication by Bloomsbury Press in March 2011 of Open
Space Learning: A Study in Transdisciplinary Pedagogy. This is a co-authored book
(principal author, Nicholas Monk) which contains alongside case studies and reflections, a
unifying argument for OSL. Further to this we have produced two annotated
bibliographies which situate OSL theory and practice within a broad academic context
and establish a canon of relevant material for future researchers and practitioners. The
first, A Bibliography of Open-space Learning by Barry Sheils, is extensive, annotating
literature on space, embodiment, active research, HE teaching and learning styles; the
second, Enactive, Embodied and Kinaesthetic Learning in Business Studies: A Bibliography
by Stephen Eliot Cornes, is discipline specific.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/bibliographies/
63
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice published an article reporting on
the OSL collaboration with Chemistry: Nicola J. Farrer, Nicholas Monk, Jonathan Heron,
Julie Ann Lough and Peter Sadler (2010). ‘(RSC)2: chemistry, performance, and pedagogy –
an interactive approach to periodic trends’ 11, 308-313. This model of co-authorship with
input from subject specialists and OSL practitioners is to be sustained in the coming
months with further plans for academic articles on the Philosophy and ‘Representing the
Other’ case studies.
Finally, the ongoing research of Jonothan Neelands continues to be informed by, and to
inform, OSL practices at Warwick. Two recent and relevant publications include:
Neelands, J and O’Hanlon, J. (2011) There is Some Soul of Good; An Action-centred
Approach to Teaching Shakespeare in Schools in Shakespeare Survey 65; and Neelands, J.
(2011) Drama as Creative Learning in Sefton-Green, J, Thomson, P, Bresler, L. and Jones K.
Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning (London; Routledge)
All of the published research outputs from this project are available for assessment under
the 2013 Research Excellence Framework.
7/8.6.5 Creative Legacy
The impact of the OSL project has been strengthened through its creative outputs. The
model of practice disseminated at Warwick has sought to emphasis the formal
relationship between teaching, research and art, and the application of artistic practice to
teaching across the disciplines.
The legacy of the Student Ensemble sustains itself through original theatrical productions,
including Discords which has played at Warwick Arts Centre.
On 7th June 2011 Warwick hosted the world premiere of Passing On, an original dramatic
work scripted by renowned playwright Mike Kenny and Claudette Bryanston. This work
on the theme of death and dying was researched by the authors along with artistic
64
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
director Peter Granville and a team from Warwick’s Institute of Health (led by Professor
Gillian Hundt) and it was partially funded by the OSL project. Using testimonials and
medical research the group held a series of exploratory ‘Ethnodrama’ workshops in which
themes were tested and dramatic potential explored. This was then developed into a
final play. Once the play has finished its run at Warwick it will have the profile to tour
nationally and internationally and the potential to introduce diverse audiences to the OSL
methods which underlie its conception.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/ethnodrama/
In order to further promote the links between artistic production, academic research and
good pedagogy we held a symposium entitled ‘Arts and the Academy’. Locally this was an
attempt to develop the integration of academic programmes at Warwick with the
extensive programme of Arts events curated by Warwick Arts Centre (one of the largest
Arts Centres in the UK). More generally, it was an occasion to consider creative models of
teaching and learning and the important role of the arts in educational practice.
7/8.6.6 Electronic dissemination
A series of podcasts have been curated on the OSL website. These range from
introductory videos to exploratory dialogues assessing issues of pedagogical and cultural
impact: ‘What is OSL?’
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl/repository/about; ‘Is the
Lecture Dead?’
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl/repository/tete-a-tete/;
Many of the OSL projects have been linked or archived within Warwick’s Knowledge
Centre, a highly viewed digital resource for showcasing innovative research at the
university, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/alumni/knowledge/about/.
Jonathan Heron and Peter Sadler, In the Mix: Science and the Arts, 12 May
2011 http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/projects/teteatete/10
Jonathan Heron, Discords: Shakespeare and Beckett. 1 June 2011
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/themes/05/discords ;
65
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Nicholas Monk, Open-space Learning: A Transdisciplinary Pedagogy, 1 June
2011
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/themes/01/open_space_learning
Nicholas Monk and Robert O’Toole, Modes of Learning: Is the Lecture Theatre
Dead? July 2010 http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/projects/teteatete/2
Jonothan Neelands, Grier Palmer, Mark Taylor, Simon M. Woods, Working
CAPITAL,17 June 2011
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/themes/exchange/workingcapital .
Robert O’Toole, The Big Idea: Spaces For Thinking, 12 May 2011
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/projects/bigidea/10;
Robert O’Toole, E-Learning, 1 June 2011
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/engineering/elearning;
The Ecology of a Whole Campus Approach to Creativity 16 June 2011
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/themes/exchange/creativity
7/8.6.7 ‘The Student Experience’ and Cosmocampus Applications
NTF Robert O’Toole has conceived a digital application for recording student experience
which is currently under development. This is a mobile virtual research and learning
environment (VRLE) tool which allows students to record and archive their learning
experiences, both objectively via video and audio recordings and subjectively via mood
icons and journal entries. Because it is an application for a mobile device it is ideal for OSL
purposes. It will also prove a valuable research tool at Warwick and across the HE sector,
archiving the student experience and helping to justify new experiential learning
initiatives.
66
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Another major technological intervention derived from the OSL funded project based in
Theatre Studies: Cosmocampus: Augmenting the Environment. The intention here was to
fuse the world of data with open spaces of the university environment; in effect, to
produce a campus-based Augmented Reality (AR) Layar (http://www.layar.com/) either
constructed from narratives and data determined by the group or potentially working in
tandem with the School's Writing for Performance module. Having prepared the
technological and conceptual foundations, next year this project will be embedded within
the second-year Aspects of Practice module, Performing Online, in the School of Theatre,
Performance and Cultural Policy Studies. More information is available at this link:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/oslfinal/osl_practice/casestudies/theatrestudies/
9. Outcomes/10. Conclusions
The extent to which the OSL project has met each of its objectives has been indexed in
section 5 above. Here we shall review the major outcomes of the project and summarise
the conclusions we have reached.
9/10.1 OSL practices are embedded in 11 departments across all faculties of Warwick
University.
These departments include: Chemistry, Cultural Policy Studies, Education, English and
Comparative Literary Studies, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Psychiatry,
Theatre Studies and Warwick Business School.
9/10.2 In the two years of the OSL project approximately 1000 students have
experienced OSL workshops.
Including the work of CAPITAL over 3000 students have experienced OSL style workshops
at Warwick in the last 5 years.
67
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
9/10.3 According to completed student questionnaires 90% of those who have
experienced OSL would recommend it to other students. Over 60% of those surveyed
allow that it provides a distinctive way of understanding their academic subject.
These statistics do not show much variation from discipline to discipline with students
from our three major statistical pools – Chemistry, Philosophy and English- responding in
kind. This suggests the multidisciplinary application of OSL.
9/10.4 The OSL project has developed several effective and sustainable models of
interdisciplinarity.
Although OSL is an essentially interdisciplinary methodology, the project has inaugurated
different models of collaboration. Whereas certain partners have relied upon dedicated
OSL practitioners to facilitate the workshop component, introducing academic content
when required to do so (e.g. Chemistry and Philosophy) others have preferred to adopt
OSL techniques themselves (e.g. Maths). This raises the issue of OSL expertise and
training. It has been noted by current practitioners in the course of interviews that their
workload over two years has been very heavy. Since one of the barriers to the adoption
of OSL is the perceived expertise and availability of practitioners it is vital that an OSL
training programme is actively promoted throughout the University. Only in this way will
OSL begin to emerge immanently within departments and bypass the felt need for expert
co-ordination. A healthy diversity in OSL practice would see projects developed
collaboratively, through partnerships between academic departments and the Student
Ensemble or IATL, and independently where OSL practice has been imported into
departmental teaching practices.
A new interdisciplinary module administered by Warwick Business School, ‘Forms of
Identity’ also bears the mark of the OSL project. This is an accredited course available to
students from any academic discipline across the University. This exceeds the familiar
joint-honours model of interdisciplinarity where OSL is combined with a single academic
discipline (Chemistry, Philosophy) and proposes a genuinely transdisciplinary practice.
Each week there will be a lecture on the theme of identity (and an associated text)
delivered by a specialist from a different academic discipline. Disciplines involved
include: Business, Drama, Education, German, Psychiatry, Sociology, Philosophy and
68
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
History. The lecture will be followed by an OSL style workshop in which the students have
an opportunity to respond to the lecture and work collaboratively at the various
problems it presents. This module will be assessed through reflective journals and
creative responses to the material.
Here students will be cast as the producers of knowledge, led by specific problems and
issues rather than by disciplinary canons of thought. In this way it will sustain the
principles of OSL practice.
9/10.5 OSL has shown itself to be academically robust across academic disciplines.
As testified by subject specialists from our major projects in Chemistry, Philosophy and
Business, OSL works with content-heavy material (7/8.1). It has contributed effectively to
assessed modules in Philosophy, English and Cultural Policy Studies and will continue to
do so in other subjects such as Maths. It has also worked as a means of assessment in
English, Cultural Policy Studies and Business. OSL assessment criteria have been
developed and disseminated on-line and will continue to be applied (see Appendix 3).
9/10.6 OSL has promoted student engagement at all levels of research and facilitation.
Each enactive project has involved the work of a lead learner. These students have
helped plan and facilitate OSL workshops, interviewed student participants, and
composed the ethnographic reports on the OSL process which have contributed to this
evaluation.
The lead learner model encourages students to reflect on and take responsibility for the
teaching and learning experience. It has been remarkably successful in this respect,
producing reports of outstanding quality and value. The lead-learners themselves have
testified to the impact of this experience. For the postgraduate lead learners it was a
chance to think about the scope of their own teaching; for the undergraduate lead
learners it provided them with a new profile as active researchers.
As a final year medical student, I have had the opportunity to reflect on
teaching methods which have been effective and those which have not. I
realised that medical students each have their own preferred methods of
69
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
learning and if a wider selection of teaching modalities were adopted, a more
productive learning experience would result.
Carrying out the questionnaire, pooling data and writing the report are all
valuable research skills which will be useful to me in the future. Prior to this
project, I had not considered medical education as a research topic and how
different disciplines can be incorporated to enhance clinical skills. It has
allowed me to step outside of the mindset of student who is taught and
consider how students’ learning can be maximised for the future. There is a
breadth of opportunity available and it will be interesting to see how future
curriculum may evolve. (David Hall, Lead learner on the Psychiatry project)
Full lead learner reports and interviews are published on the OSL website.
9/10.7 OSL is firmly embedded within Warwick University’s teaching strategy through
the Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL).
The OSL project achieved one of its main strategic goals when the university funded IATL,
a centre dedicated to innovative teaching practices, active student research and
interdisciplinarity. The OSL ethos is written into the fabric of this centre.
9/10.8 The OSL project has developed lasting projects in the field of Professional
development with Student Careers and Skills and the Learning and Development
Centre. (see 7/8.6.1)
9/10.9 OSL has established the paradigm along with the Student Careers and Skills for
a funded intervention in STEM subjects: The ‘Real World’ paradigm (see 7/8.1.1)
9/10.10 OSL will continue to make an impact on Warwick’s Widening Participation
and Community Engagement strategies.
An OSL workshop on the theme of Identity has been successfully trialed in a local school
by a member of the project team.
Opening Spaces is a new collaboration between IATL at Warwick and the RSA Academy
Tipton. Central to the project’s objective to support the Academy in developing teaching
and learning strategies for use in its new teaching spaces is a series of OSL workshops and
consultations. This will also provide an opportunity to evaluate how ‘the process of
engagement between a secondary and a tertiary education institution is beneficial to
70
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
those involved’ (IATL website).
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/tipton/openingspaces/
9/10.11 The OSL project has led to the foundation of a new Chair of Creative Education
in Warwick Business School and the creation of a joint venture between the Business
School and the Royal Shakespeare Company called the Centre for Teaching
Shakespeare.
Professor Jonothan Neelands, Principal Investigator on the OSL project, is the first holder
of the Chair of Creative Education, providing continuity between the two projects.
9/10.12 The OSL project has made an important contribution to the university’s
consideration of future learning and teaching space developments.
The philosophy of the Open Space Learning project at Warwick contributes to
the CPARG’s consideration of future learning and teaching space
developments. OSL's promotion and justification of flexible and open learning
environments which allow innovative, student-centred practices to flourish
will suggest ways to re-conceive existing spaces within the university, as well
as inform future planning and design. (Capital Planning and Accommodation
Review Group, University of Warwick)
9/10.13 OSL has demonstrated that it is applicable to all levels of study.
Both the ‘Representing the Other’ case study and the ‘Collaboration and Co-authorship in
the Humanities and the Social Sciences’ workshop demonstrate a considered demand
among postgraduate research students for collaborative and open-space work.
9/10.14 The OSL project has created an extensive on-line resource with case-studies,
learning tools, and lesson plans to aid future OSL practitioners.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
9/10.15 OSL is continuing to develop its distinctive pedagogic brand.
This project has produced a landmark publication Open Space Learning: A Study in
Transdisciplinary Pedagogy and continues to set the trend toward design thinking and
problem based, student-centred approaches to learning.
71
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
72
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
11. Implications/ 12. Recommendations
In this section we shall briefly describe the extent of the OSL project’s intervention in four
broad areas of concern for the whole HE community: Technology, Assessment, HE
teaching in the wake of the Browne Review and Professional Training. Each of these areas
provides a register for judging the timeliness of OSL and identifying points where the OSL
model can be further developed.
11/12.1 Technology
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/technology/
The advent of the internet and electronic dissemination means that traditional forms of
intellectual authority will be challenged regardless of the success of the OSL project. The
form of HE learning in which a single academic lectures to a large group of students is
becoming less and less sustainable when students can easily download a podcast or
access any number of lectures on the same topic over the internet. Whilst the figure of
the trusted intellectual mentor will hardly be abandoned, indeed she may become more
valuable than ever in a world with so many accessible and potentially untrustworthy
academic resources, the form in which she delivers her mentorship will have to evolve.
The OSL project proposes one form of pedagogic evolution where the embodied and
interactive experience of learning is complemented rather than usurped by the internet.
New internet technologies are creating a demand for alternatives to the lecture theatre.
The open studio space fulfils this demand. Equally, the open studio space demands new
mobile technologies for the purposes of documentation, reflection and assessment. The
value of live embodied work can be lost without sophisticated ways of disseminating it.
According to NTF Robert O’Toole it is the students who are meeting this challenge and
undertaking the groundwork for more complex and accountable OSL work. He suggests
that already many students as matter of course take their i-pod touches and phones out
to record a thought or archive an image: they are ‘post –technological’.
73
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The question of how does technology integrate with OSL would seem an odd
one to most students – it would only make sense to those who don’t have a
post-technological mind set – who see technology as something extra or
different. (Robert O’Toole, OSL project group)
The point here is that technology should not be viewed as a threat to ‘live’ learning
experiences but as a means for helping the students engage reflectively and creatively
with these experiences. This could take the form of recording OSL sessions, embedding
media within sessions, or using mobile devices to integrate internet research with the
embodied work. Technology can help the students actively define their own learning
space and to connect the local learning space to a larger learning network.
For these reasons we are committed to developing mobile learning and research
platforms such as the Student experience application (7/8.6.7) for future use in OSL
workshops. The OSL website includes an OSL technology guide.
11/12. 2 OSL Training
It has been one of the major lessons of this project that in order to embed an innovative
HE pedagogy successfully across academic disciplines there has to be a distinctive and
recognised training route to attract new practitioners. Although this project has
succeeded in applying the OSL methodology in a fully integrated interdisciplinary fashion,
it has relied on a relatively small number of OSL practitioners for its duration. The
University’s initial decision not to support an accredited postgraduate qualification in
workshop pedagogy has contributed to this. Consequently, certain of the project’s
ambitions have been delayed, namely the training of existing subject-specialists in the
practices of OSL facilitation and a professional valuation of OSL. If OSL practices are to
continue evolving from within different academic departments at Warwick and beyond,
as an informed alternative to the lecture or seminar format, then they must be viewed as
a central matter of professional development. Any future projects looking to further the
methods of OSL must work concurrently for institutional recognition of this order.
74
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
11/12.3 Assessment
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/osl_practice/assessment/
The skepticism of academics with regard to issues of rigour and intellectual accountability
has often been a barrier to the adoption of innovative HE teaching practices such as OSL:
Can you really assess embodied work in the same way as you can assess written work?
Increasingly this is no longer the case or the question. Warwick University regulations
permit performance to stand as an exam; and, as OSl project team member Susan Brock
notes:
departments are using elements of OSL assessment (reflective journals,
presentations) but what they haven’t thought about is how you apply this to
a different sort of teaching. (Susan Brock, OSL project group)
In other words, assessment methodologies increasingly contain the acknowledgment that
the written exam format is too narrow to reflect the extent and diversity of the individual
student’s thought processes. The idea that a performance cannot be marked in the same
way as a traditional academic essay for thoughtfulness and intellectual responsiveness is
also gradually being eroded.
And yet, teaching practices have not always caught up with this formal recognition that
student outputs can and should be creative and diverse. OSL has provided a model for
innovative practice and assessment together. Modules in English, Business and Cultural
Policy Studies have integrated OSL assessment strategies: combining presentations or
performances with viva voce examinations or reflective journals; encouraging risk taking
and creativity; demanding intellectual responsiveness over technical skill in acting, film
editing etc. (see Appendix 3). The OSL website contains an assessment guide for
practitioners.
75
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
11/12.4 HE Teaching in the wake of the Browne Review
The Browne Review (2010) framed the financial restructuring of HE institutions in the UK
in 2011. We have identified below three implicit principles which guide this review and
define the context for HE teaching in the coming years. Alongside each principle we have
considered the strategic value of OSL within this new HE paradigm.
1. The Competitive University
Universities ought to compete in an educational marketplace which encourages
‘product’ differentiation (1).
The question of how a university differentiates itself from its competitors will
become more pressing in respect of teaching as well as research. OSL is a mark of
distinction for Warwick University and, given an accredited training programme
for OSL practitioners, a mark of distinction for Warwick-trained educators.
2. The Student Experience
Alongside the central financial recommendation that the money should follow the
student fee payer, the Browne Review envisages that every university have a
student charter (31), and suggests that HE quality be judged more according to
the student’s perspective. “We want to put students at the heart of the system.
Students are best placed to make judgments about what they want to get from
participating in higher education” (25).
OSL is a student-centred pedagogy which encourages student engagement at
every stage of its working development from planning to delivery to evaluation. It
privileges an active and embodied form of learning which students report as more
memorable than lectures or seminars.
3. The Skills Gap
76
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
“Already, employers in the UK frequently report that some graduates lack
communication, entrepreneurial and networking skills, as well as an
understanding of how businesses operate” (16).
“Analysis from the UKCES suggests that the Higher Education system does not
produce the most effective mix of skills to meet business needs. 20% of
businesses report having a skills gap of some kind in their existing workforce, up
from 16% since 2007” (23).
OSL is a problem-based and interdisciplinary pedagogy which is not restricted by
disciplinary conventions. It encourages open and collaborative projects which
improve communication and presentation skills and develop individual
responsibility and self-esteem. The OSL project has led on professional
development initiatives such as the ‘Real World’ paradigm which seek to improve
the fit of graduates to the world beyond the University.
77
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
13. References
Argyris, C. (1992) On Organisational Learning. Cambridge MA: Blackwell
Argyris, C. and Schon, D. (1974) Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness.
San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Bhabha, Homi K. (1994) The Location of Culture. Oxon: Routledge
Browne, John (2010) Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education: an Independent
Review of Higher Education. www.independant.gov.uk/browne-report (accessed 1
May 2011)
Bruner, J. (1986) Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press
CBI (2008) Higher Education Task Force Key Facts 1.
http://www.cbi.org.uk/ndbs/press.nsf/0363c1f07c6ca12a8025671c00381cc7/3f109c
6775f30aec802574c6003a51ce/$FILE/CBI%20HE%20Task%20Force%20Key%20Facts%
201.pdf (accessed 16 February 2009)
Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1999) Implications of a System's Perspective for the Study of
Creativity. IN STERNBERG, R. J. (Ed.) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Daniels, H., ed. (2001) Vygotsky and Pedagogy. Routledge: London and New
DCMS (2008) Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy, London, DCMS
Farrer, N.J., Monk, N., Heron, J., Lough, J.A. &Sadler, P. (2010) “(RSC)2: chemistry,
performance, and pedagogy – an interactive approach to periodic trends”. Chemistry
Education Research and Practice 11, 308-313
Freire, P, and Shor, I. (1987) A Pedagogy of Liberation: Dialogues on Transforming
Education. New York: Bergin and Garvey
Gardner, H. (1985) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic
Jackson, N. Oliver, M. Shaw, M. Wisdom, J. (Eds) (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher
Education: The Imaginative Curriculum. London: Routledge
Kolb. David. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and
Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
78
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Monk, N. et al. (2011) Open Space Learning: A Study in Transdisciplinary Pedagogy.
London: Bloomsbury
O’Connor, P. and Nichol, J. (2003) Natural High: Mental Health Resource for Alcohol and
Drug Education. (Revised edition). Auckland: Mental Health Foundation.
Ramsden, P. (2008) “The Future of Higher Education: Teaching and the Student
Experience”
http://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/350/The%20Future%20of%20Higher%20Education
%20(Teaching%20and%20the%20student%20experience).pdf (accessed 17 March
2011)
Savin-Baden, M. (2008) Learning Spaces: Creating Opportunities for Knowledge Creation
in Academic Life. Maidenhead, England; New York: McGraw Hill/Society for Research
into Higher Education & Open University Press
Seltzer, K. and Bentley, T. (1999) The Creative Age: Knowledge and Skills for the New
Economy. London: DEMOS.
Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1999) The Concept of Creativity: Prospects and Paradigms.
In Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Wells, G. (2008) Dialogic Inquiry: Towards a Socio-cultural Practice and Theory of
Education (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive & Computational Perspectives).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Whitehead, J. & McNiff, J. (2006) Action Research, Living Theory. London: Sage
79
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
14. Appendices
14.1 Generic Questionnaire
14.2 Alumni Questionnaire
14.3 Sample OSL assessment criteria
14.4 Student Ensemble Projects 2009-11
80
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Appendix 1: Sample Generic Questionnaire
Please help us reflect on the values of Open Space Learning by spending a few minutes
completing this questionnaire. All your contributions will contribute to our research and
to the future development of teaching and learning at Warwick.
1. In the context of today’s workshop, please signal whether you agree or disagree
with the following statements. 5 is ‘strongly agree’, 1 is ‘strongly disagree’.
1
a) It is valuable to use a variety of teaching and learning methods beyond the
traditional lecture and seminar format.
2
3
4
5
b) This kind of session offers a distinctive way of understanding my academic
subject.
1
1
2
3
4
5
c) This session permits a model for teaching and learning which is more
genuinely collaborative than the traditional lecture or seminar
2
3
4
5
d) Creativity is an important feature of education in all subjects
1
2
3
4
5
e) I can be more creative in these workshops than in lectures /seminars/lab-work
1
2
3
4
5
f) I learn more from a lecture than I do from one of these workshops
1
2
3
4
5
81
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
g) This workshop helps me to think about the application of what I learn in the
lecture theatre/seminar room/lab.
1
2
3
4
5
2. What did you learn/discover during the course of this session?
3. How successful do you think the session was in respect of the following learning
objectives where 5 is ‘very successful’ and 1 is ‘not successful at all’?
1
2
3
4
5
Developing critical skills
Developing presentation
Skills
Introducing new material
Providing historical
context
4. Would you recommend these sessions to other students? Please circle:
Yes
No
5. How keen are you to experience more interactive/workshop teaching of this kind?
5 is ‘very keen’, 1 is ‘not keen at all’.
82
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
1
2
3
4
5
6. Please use this space to give further reasons for your answers and record any
further reflections you may have.
These questionnaires are designed to preserve your anonymity. However, should you
wish to reflect further on the uses of Open Space Learning please provide your name and
contact detail below.
Name……………………………………………………………………….
Email…………………………………………………………………………………………
83
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Appendix 2: Sample Alumni Questionnaire
Please help us reflect on the values of teaching and learning at Warwick University by
spending a few minutes completing this questionnaire. We are interested in how you
remember and reflect on your experience of Open Space Learning workshops taken
during the course of your Philosophy and Literature degree.
We will preserve your anonymity.
Current
Occupation……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
1. Which Open Space workshops did you experience? What do you remember of
them?
2. Do you feel differently about Open Space Learning workshops now than you did
when taking the module?
Yes
No
If your answer is ‘Yes’, can you account for this?
84
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
3. Would you say that your Open Space Learning experience has contributed to your
employability in terms of interview skills or demonstrable job skills?
Yes
No
Please provide a reason for your answer.
4. Would you say that the kinds of skills and thought processes you developed
through Open Space Learning workshops help you in your work today?
Yes
No
Please provide a reason for your answer?
85
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Should you wish to reflect further on the uses of Open Space Learning at Warwick please
record your name and contact detail below.
Name……………………………………………………………………….
Email………………………………………………………………………………………….
86
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Appendix 3: Sample Assessment Criteria
DPI Grading Criteria 2010-11
Please note that your performance need not be “finished” or “polished”; it must
necessarily be a work in progress. The idea is not to produce a finished mini-drama, or a
complete piece of performance art – although this is fine if it occurs. The purpose of this
exercise is to show a depth of understanding of some or several aspects of the material
presented and discussed on the module. The task is intended to be intellectually
demanding rather than an examination of any acting, directing, or artistic skills.
1. There is to be a single group mark based on the video of the performance, but this
is to be calculated only in the light of the viva. The module is designed in this
fashion as both viva and performance as one piece of work are integral to
students’ demonstration of their understanding of the material. It may be
possible, for example, for an opaque or apparently muddled performance to come
sharply into focus in the viva. Equally, an exceptional performance might balance
a less confident viva. There will be a weighting of 75 % of the overall 60%
allocated to this section of the module for viva and performance. Students’
individual marks will be calculated by assessing, separately, the reflective journal
(which will represent the remaining 25% of the overall 60% available.)
2. The assessment criteria used for both performance and viva are based on those
used for assessed essays in the Department of English. The 17-point scale applies
to all students. The criteria will be available to examiners. The following are the
modified criteria for each division:
a. FIRST CLASS Marks 70 – 100
Awarded for outstanding merit. Work will demonstrate all the virtues of the 2:1 band
with, perhaps, additional qualities of intellectual maturity, original research, felicity of
presentation, and/or elements of exceptional insight in the engagement with the subject.
A first-class performance and viva will meet all the criteria of the award of the 2:1 and
will exceed them either in many of the ways indicated under the criteria for the 2:1 or by
large margins under a few criteria, for example by:
87
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
- Ambitious project carried out successfully
- Outstandingly perceptive response to a number of details of the ideas presented in the
module
- Convincing and vivid presentation of an engaged response to these ideas
- Particularly sophisticated handling of these ideas
- Thorough and lucid engagement with difficult ideas
- Outstandingly well-judged integration of these into performance/presentation of
broader cultural, historical, and/or theoretical issues
SECOND CLASS: DIVISION 1 Marks 60 – 69
The best work will be highly competent in presentation, showing evidence of individual
research and appropriate and intelligent uses of primary and secondary material. A 2:1
performance/viva will meet all the criteria for the award of the 2:2 and will exceed them
in some of the following ways:
- Incorporate understanding of well-chosen material
- Offer a performance that leads examiners lucidly to conclusions
- Be organised into an effective overall structure
- Signpost its overall argument effectively so that the structure of the whole piece is clear
to the examiner
- Show good understanding of the impact of the biographical, historical and cultural
circumstances of writing on the material being performed/discussed
SECOND CLASS: DIVISION 2 Marks 50-59
88
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
The lower category in the second-class degree. Work will be conscientious, and attentive
to subject matter and title. In practice many 2:2 marks are the result of a mixture of
perceptive work and a significant proportion of errors or irrelevancies.
A 2:2 essay will:
- Show an understanding of the ideas contained in the module and present a relevant
response
- Show good knowledge of the material being discussed/performed
- Present an argument backed up with performance/discussion of appropriate detail
- Show some understanding of the historical and cultural circumstances in which the
ideas represented exist
- Show good organisation
THIRD CLASS Marks 40 – 49
Ranges from the barely adequate to the severely limited performance; work may be short
weight, show only minimal knowledge of the subject matter, or a lack of personal
engagement or application to the question.
- A third class performance/viva will fall short of one or more of the criteria for the award
of 2:2, but not to a disastrous degree.
- Third class work will be characterised by the inclusion of over generalised and
unsupported material , or by a simplistic and unquestioning approach to issues
- There will be some knowledge of the material and ideas from the module and an
attempt to offer a performance and a defence in the viva
89
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
FAIL Marks 30 – 39
Work falls below the standard required for an Honours degree and has the weaknesses of
the third-class degree unredeemed by compensating virtues. It may include failure or
inability to put on a performance or respond to questions in the viva, poverty of
expression and irrelevance of information.
- A fail will fall short of several of the criteria for the award of a 2:2 or will fall short of one
of them in a disastrous way.
- Fail marks are sometimes produced by answers that are so short they are
- inadequate.
- A mark of 0 will be awarded for non-submission.
- A mark of 0 may be awarded for plagiarism.
Some advice:
1. Don't be technology obsessed, but do feel free to use it. I can offer you a theatre
technician in small doses if needed.
2. You are dealing with complex issues, but this need not necessarily result in an overly
complex piece. Think, however, about the amount of work you would put in into 9 x 2
hour sessions of traditional seminar work (including the reading) over a term, add to that
the time you would spend researching & writing an essay, then subtract the time you will
spend on the reflective journal. This is roughly what you should be putting into this piece.
Some of what you do will be "book research" - you could do this individually, but it might
also be an opportunity for someone who is less comfortable with the performance
aspects of the piece to contribute in another way. Other work will involve scripting, of
course, rehearsal, the acquiring of props and materials, design, construction, etc, etc.
90
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
3.If you have concerns about direction, voice them to the group frankly & readily. Be
prepared, however, to compromise in certain areas. This is a collaboration & that obviously - involves some give & take. If you're going to work in jobs associated with
creativity in the future, this is what it's like.
Nicholas Monk
91
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
Appendix 4: Student Ensemble Projects 2009-11
October-December 2009
BeckettLab
A workshop series based on a theatre laboratory, that explored the theatre of Samuel
Beckett in relation to devising process and actor training.
January-March 2010
Performance Interventions
Three lectures in the Faculty of Arts were reinvented through performed extracts and
practice-based research into set texts. During this period, the ensemble were rehearsing
for the New Work Festival.
April – May 2010
New Work Festival
A work-in-progress festival, presenting student performance projects alongside the work
of professional theatre artists. Visiting companies included the Oxford Youth Theatre and
associates of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
May-June 2010
Networking
A training event for graduate students and early career academics, simulating an
academic environment in which participants had to ‘network’, followed by a
developmental workshop process.
September-December 2010 Discords (after Shakespeare)
A rehearsal process in which the student ensemble devised the final version of the
production and trained in the methods of the choreographer Laban.
January 2011
Fail Better Double-bill
92
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/
A professional production in which the ensemble engaged with the real world experience
of the touring theatre company; performances were attended by OSL project teams and
participants from Psychiatry, Philosophy, English and Theatre Studies.
February 2011
Ensemble Training Day
A full day training the ensemble for applied theatre events across the university.
March 2011
Maths and Drama
Members of the student ensemble performed extracts from plays exploring
mathematical knowledge leading into an enactive workshop.
March 2011
Clinical Skills Laboratory
A field trip observing the use of role play and simulation in medical education, as the first
stage of our innovative project with Psychiatry.
May 2011
Workshop Facilitation
A training day for early career academics and higher educators, in which the ensemble
performed a group of learners within a simulated classroom.
June 2011
Psychiatry and Performance
A series of readings for medical students and a creative exchange between two practicebased student groups, reconnecting the humanities with medicine.
93
Open-space Learning in Real World Contexts: evaluation and impact assessment report
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/projects/osl-final/